Notebook: Munguia faces Surace with bigger business looming
Nick Ball's next featherweight title defense set; former unified champion exiting retirement; Holmes scores key win; Quick hits; Show and tell
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As super middleweight contender Jaime Munguia gets ready for his first hometown Tijuana, Mexico, fight in two years, bigger things are brewing — as long as he wins.
Munguia will face Bruno Surace in a 10-rounder atop the Zanfer Promotions card on Saturday (ESPN+ in the U.S., 9 p.m. ET) at Estadio Caliente, but during fight week — thousands of miles away in Hamburg, Germany, at the annual WBC convention — the organization announced it would sanction a vacant 168-pound interim title bout between Munguia and Christian Mbilli, who is ranked No. 1 by the WBC.
That is a fight Top Rank, which co-promotes Mbilli, has been interested in making since it started also working with Munguia in the wake of his decision loss to unified champion Canelo Alvarez in May.
Munguia, however, needs to beat heavy underdog Surace to make that fight a reality.
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