WBO champ Jaime Munguia admits Dennis Hogan is next

Jaime Munguia [31(26)-0] has finally spoken the name of Dennis Hogan [28(7)-1(0)-1] and acknowledges that the Kildare native is next in line if he defeats Takeshi Inoue in their January 26th DAZN main event at The Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.

‘The Hurricane’ has been #1 number contender for the Mexican’s WBO light middleweight world title for some time now, but his name has until now never crossed the lips of the young star.

However, ahead of his third defence of his strap, the 22-yea- old admits Hogan, who was only made mandatory in November and risked his shot by fighting Jamie Weetch in December, will be next if he progresses as expected past the Japanese voluntary.

“After this, it appears that I have my mandatory fight with the WBO with Dennis Hogan,” Munguia says.

There were some concerns/hopes that the Golden Boy fighter, who has now become a target for Spike O’Sullivan, may struggle at the weight and move up to middle after his forthcoming defence, but it seems Munguia plans to stay at light middle for the foreseeable future.

Indeed, the undefeated world champion has light middleweight unification aspirations and before a deal has even been trashed out with Kildare’s Hogan he is discussing possible fights with IBF and WBA counterpart Jarrett Hurd, WBC title holder Tony Harrison, as well as former champ Jermell Charlo .

“The plan is to move up to 160 pounds in about a year,” revealed Munguia. ” We’re fine making weight now. I have no problems, but I feel I can move up and fight in other divisions. My body is such that I could even go up to 168 pounds.”

“I would like to unify at 154 pounds with any of the champions there and whatever is put in front of this bus will resolve it,” added the ambitious Latino who is being built towards a future megafight with Canelo Alvarez.

“I know that a fight between Hurd and myself would be a big clash because we both fight coming forward, and with those kinds of styles, it’s hard to imagine that fight going to a decision.”

“With Harrison, I think he would run and try to maintain distance. It would be a tough fight, but I would have to take the fight to find him and knock him out. As far as Charlo, let him win a world title, and then, we’ll talk about fighting.”

“I think I’d knock all of them out. I’m sure that I can.”