Jaime Munguia, Dmitry Bivol possible for one last HBO card

HBO’s October 27 card may not be its last, as Mike Coppinger reports at The RING that the network owes Jaime Munguia one more fight, which could come in a headline role on December 8 in Los Angeles.

Munguia (31-0, 26 KO) has fought three times on HBO this year and five times overall. The 21-year-old won the WBO junior middleweight title in his HBO debut on May 12, routing Sadam Ali and stopping him in four rounds, and returned on July 21 to defeat Liam Smith by decision.

He was last seen on September 15, part of the Canelo-GGG 2 undercard, where he smashed out Brandon Cook in three rounds.

One possible opponent, according to the report, is Japan’s Takeshi Inoue (13-0-1, 7 KO), a 28-year-old who has won the Japanese and OPBF titles at 154 pounds.

Dmitry Bivol (14-0, 11 KO), the WBA “world” light heavyweight titleholder, could also make a final appearance on HBO on this proposed date. Bivol, 27, has beaten Sullivan Barrera and Isaac Chilemba on HBO airwaves this year, but never got to a designed fight with Sergey Kovalev, who was upset by Eleider Alvarez in August.

Bivol could face Joe Smith Jr (24-2, 20 KO), the 29-year-old Long Island power puncher who retired Bernard Hopkins back in 2016. Smith lost to Sullivan Barrera in his lone 2017 fight, and returned after some injuries and almost a year off this past June in Connecticut. That fight, according to the report, is also possible for its own event in November.