Unbeaten and unknown Bruno Surace of France hadn't beaten anyone of note and had only fought a few ten-rounders before he traveled to Tijuana, Mexico to face super middleweight contender Jaime Munguia.
Few gave Surace a chance, and even if you thought Surace had a chance, with only four knockouts in his twenty-five wins, no one thought Surace could stop the durable Munguia. After the expected Munguia win, he would face Christian Mbilli in a WBC-ordered eliminator, which would be sure to be a crowd-pleaser.
Surace was better than advertised and despite losing most of the first five rounds and being knocked down in the second round by a Munguia hook, Surace was hanging around in a fight that he appeared to be overmatched.
That was before Surace bounded off the ropes with a pulverizing right hand that dropped Munguia to the floor.
Munguia bravely beat the count but couldn't continue as the fight ended as what will likely be named the upset of the year for 2024.
Munguia vs Mbilli will be delayed as Munguia will likely look for a chance to redeem himself against Surace as quickly as possible.
Monte Carlo was the site of the first of DAZN's two cards with their main event featuring former WBA and IBF junior featherweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev, who knocked Ricardo Espinoza down three times in the third round before the referee stopped the fight in that round.
Akhmadaliev is the best fighter in the division that has yet to meet the undisputed champion, Naoya Inoue, and in winning a WBA minor title, Akhmadaliev will hopefully receive his chance at "The Monster" sometime in 2025.
In the evening DAZN program, welterweights Alexis Rocha and Raul Curiel swapped punches for twelve exciting rounds with the judges deciding on a majority decision draw.
Rocha banked the early rounds by boxing a bit and keeping Curiel at bay from the outside but began to exchange more often, which made the fight more fan-friendly but took away Rocha's tactical advantage.
The scorecards were 116-112 for Rocha and two at 114-114, which is how I saw the fight.
Both fighters seemed amenable to a rematch; considering this fight, a rematch would be well received.
Unbeaten junior middleweight Charles Conwell continued his march to a title shot with a dominating seventh-round knockout of Gerardo Vergara.
Conwell should be in line for either a title chance or a final title eliminator next year.
On Sunday, heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte won a surprisingly entertaining slugfest over Ebenezer Tetteh when Tetteh's corner ended the fight after the seventh round.
Tetteh's only loss entering the fight came to Daniel DuBois via first-round knockout and most expected Tetteh to look for a way out as soon as Whyte hit him but showed plenty of heart in exchanging with Whyte throughout the fight.
Whyte hurt Tettah badly in both the sixth and seventh rounds and the fight was stopped at the right time.
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