WBO WORLD LIGHT-MIDDLEWEIGHT champion Jaime Munguia has added reinforcements to his team ahead of his world-title defence against Ireland’s Dennis Hogan in Monterrey, Mexico on 13 April.
Munguia, 22, has recruited nutritionist Manuel Covarrubias in a bid to ensure he recovers fully from the weigh-in a day before the fight, and has also enlisted the services of an extra trainer, Fernando Fernández.
The latter will fine-tune the Mexican’s skills alongside head trainer Roberto Alcázar, coach Noé Álvarez and Munguia’s father, Jaime Munguía Sr.
“The truth is that I felt very well, the main coach is still Roberto Alcázar and we have been good. The challenge is to keep advancing in each fight,” Munguia [32-0, 26KOs] told ESPN Deportes. “I’m happy in general, I’ve seen many changes, I feel faster and stronger, they’ll see in the next fight.
Another thing that we have been working on is the weight. We work hard to make it and we want to recover very well for the fight after the weigh-in. That’s the most important thing for the whole team — that I have a good recovery.
Brisbane-based Hogan, a native of Kilcullen, Co. Kildare, is a bookies’ outsider entering next month’s contest, but he and his team have for the bones of a year maintained that Munguia considers him a major speedbump on his path to stardom. Munguia has twice overlooked Hogan for recent title defences.
The awkward and super-fit ‘Hurricane’ [28-1-1, 7KOs], who will earn a career-highest purse in the region of A$500,000 (€300,000) to face the champion on away soil, is a more natural fit for the 154-pound division than Munguia who has long been earmarked for a move up to middleweight.
The Mexican is considered a fearsome puncher, his knockout percentage standing at 81, but while still developing physically, he appears to have lost some of his firepower at light-middle in recent contests — a three-round destruction of the unheralded Brandon Cook notwithstanding.
Still, Munguia is confident of rediscovering his pop and raining it down upon his Irish adversary in Monterrey.
“I have an excellent rival in front me — very strong and very experienced,” he said. “So let’s see what comes with that.
“I think he is going to come with everything. He wants to take away the title. We’re going to keep it here. That’s how it is in Mexico.
“Let’s find the KO.”
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