Munguia Wants a Soft Touch in Keiber Gonzalez as Melikuziev Waits

Jaime Munguia is trying to buy his way out of a real fight. The No. 5 super middleweight, 46-2 with 35 knockouts, is reportedly negotiating a step-aside payment with WBA mandatory Bektemir Melikuziev so he can instead take on Venezuela's Keiber Gonzalez, a 32-year-old who sits at a charitable No. 106 in the BoxRec rankings. The plan is to slot the bout onto the still-empty Canelo card roughly three weeks out.

On paper Gonzalez looks tidy at 23-1 (20 KO), but the resume tells a different story. His one notable outing was a wide loss to Cesar Mateo Tapia two years ago, and the rest of his wins came against low-level opposition scattered across Curacao, Colombia and Mexico. He's a middleweight moving up, and he offers nothing that resembles a contender.

No Case for Rust-Shaking

The usual excuse for a tune-up doesn't apply here. Munguia cruised to a unanimous decision over Armando Resendiz just five months ago, and he took that fight after sitting out for a year. So there's no layoff to shake off and no injury story to sell. This is record-padding, plain and simple, and reportedly dangling a mid-five or six-figure purse at a journeyman to collect an easy belt defense.

The precedent isn't flattering either. Denzel Bentley, the WBO middleweight champ at 22-3-1 (18 KO), recently tried the same maneuver after signing with Zuffa Boxing. When two titleholders in the same stretch start shopping for step-aside deals to avoid their mandatories, it starts to look like a trend rather than a coincidence.

Melikuziev Isn't Playing Along

The catch is Melikuziev. The 17-1 (11 KO) challenger says he isn't interested in stepping aside, and given how long he's been waiting for a shot he's already owed, that stance reads as genuine rather than a negotiating ploy. He could be holding out for more money, sure, but a fighter who's been queued up this long has every reason to demand the fight itself, not a check to go away.

If Melikuziev holds firm, Munguia's soft-landing plan collapses and the Gonzalez bout never materializes. That would be the right outcome. A top-five super middleweight with 35 career knockouts shouldn't be spending a Canelo-card slot on a man ranked outside the top 100 when a legitimate mandatory is standing right there, ready to go.