TRENDING College football live updates Canelo vs. Mbilli live updates NFL Week 8 injury tracker Colts open to trading JT Belichick-Hudson breakup Story by Story by Canelo vs. Mbilli results: Jaime Munguia survives dramatic Nikita Zon scare to retain WBA title Alan Dawson Uncrowned Sat, October 31, 2026 at 10:08 PM UTC About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jaime Munguia survived a mid-fight gut-check to beat Nikita Zon after 12 rounds of terrible, horrible, no good, very bad boxing on Saturday at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
With the WBA super middleweight world title on the line and Eddy Reynoso in Munguia's corner, one would be forgiven for expecting technical prowess. But this was as weird and sloppy as it was entertaining, with numerous rounds of unrestrained brawling.
For Munguia, this was a third fight under Reynoso's watch, with the timing of each camp having the added benefit of being able to train alongside Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez — the fighter he once tried to beat, but lost to, in 2024.
But Munguia is far from a typical Reynoso fighter. He remains heavy-handed, rugged and defensively vulnerable. And he was exposed as such by an unorthodox Russian who came into the fight with one intention: to frustrate Munguia by roughing him up and making things ugly.
In the opening round Zon hit Munguia with two late punches after a break. The Mexican may have responded with a clattering left hook of his own, but it was not enough to deter the southpaw from his strategy, as he pushed Munguia back with a glove to the face and held his head down for good measure in the second.
Munguia was often off-balance, eating punches, and forced into the corners of the ring where Zon would attack him with all kinds of unconventional shots with increasingly odd leverage.
Munguia, however, did produce moments of his own, particularly when he hammered left hooks into Zon's unprotected ribs.
Munguia even wobbled Zon with a straight shot in the third. Bang. He capitalized on Zon's awkward posture, the Russian keeping his right hand low to shoot jabs from his waist, leaving himself vulnerable to snappy shots up top. Something Munguia was all too happy to exploit.
By the fifth, Munguia kept making Zon pay for the defensive holes in his guard, ramming a massive shot into his exposed chin that threatened to send him to the canvas. With Zon still dazed, Munguia landed a three-punch combination against his face at the bell.
Then came the sixth. The round of the night. Munguia and Zon exchanged power punches in frenetic fashion, with Zon hurting the champ with a counter left uppercut, before a right hook threatened to put the Mexican on the floor. Against the odds, Zon had his moment. Perhaps even the fight.
Referee Tony Weeks even appeared ready to intervene at one stage, such was the danger Munguia found himself in.
But rather than picking his punches and exploiting the openings, Zon threw indiscriminately, smothering his own work and allowing Munguia to survive.
Considering Zon had never boxed beyond the eighth round in his career, there were questions about how well he could conserve his energy. And it was perhaps only a matter of time before Zon snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Munguia hardly helped matters. He continued to hammer hooks into Zon's ribs, accelerating his physical decline.
The Russian was slowing considerably, not just with his hands but his footwork, too, struggling to get out of the way of Munguia's punches.
Even Munguia's jab had become somewhat of a power punch considering the ease in which he could throw and land with it, with Zon's defensive game just gone by the 10th.
When the fight had finally finished, the judges awarded Munguia with a unanimous decision win with scores of 116-112 and 117-111 (twice).
"It was a little complicated but I pulled it off," Munguia said, advancing his record to 47-2, 35 KOs.
"He caught me, then I caught him, and I got careless and he caught me again," Munguia said of the sixth round. "It's part of learning and my growth. I give myself a 6 or 7 out of 10. Some things failed. Some I did not do.
"I'm happy with my win and I will keep on working," he finished.
For more on Canelo vs. Mbilli, including live results, play-by-play and highlights of Saturday's entire main card, check out Uncrowned's fight night hub.
Source: Sports
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