After surviving serious trouble against Nikita Zon in the sixth round, though, the resilient Munguia mounted a comeback, regained control and retained his WBA super middleweight title by unanimous decision in The Ring’s “Mexico Versus The World” co-feature at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Judges Janny Guzman (117-111), Mikael Hook (117-111) and Ferlin Marsh (116-112) all scored their 12-round fight for Munguia by comfortable margins.

Canelo Alvarez will challenge WBC super middleweight champ Christian Mbilli in the main event of a show DAZN is streaming worldwide on pay-per-view and as part of its Ultimate plan.

Tijuana’s Munguia (47-2, 35 KOs), Alvarez’s stablemate, has won three straight fights since his shocking sixth-round knockout defeat to French underdog Bruno Surace in December 2024. Zon (12-1-1, 10 KOs) hadn’t boxed beyond the eighth round prior to meeting Munguia and it showed as the exhausted Russian southpaw labored through the final few rounds.

“It was kinda complicated,” Munguia told DAZN’s Claudia Trejos in the ring. “It was sticky there for a little bit, but I pulled it off and that’s what’s important and it’s part of the growth.”

Munguia made his first defense of the WBA super middleweight title he won from Armando Resendiz (17-3, 11 KOs), who he beat by unanimous decision May 2 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The Ring’s No. 5 contender for an unclaimed championship was an 18-1 favorite to defeat Zon because the WBA’s No. 9-ranked contender hadn’t faced a proven contender, let alone a champion, in five years as a professional prior to Saturday.

The 30-year-old Munguia is expected to make a mandated defense of his WBA belt against Uzbekistan’s Bektemir Melikuziev (17-1, 11 KOs) in his next bout.

An aggressive Munguia attacked Zon throughout the 12th round, but he couldn’t hurt his fatigued opponent and settled for a points victory.

Munguia’s left hook to the body made Zon move away from him late in the 11th round. Zon seemed content to go the distance at that point.

Zon shoved Munguia to the canvas with just under 1:20 remaining in the 10th round. By then, Zon’s punch output dropped dramatically, which enabled Munguia to bank rounds on the scorecards.

Munguia seemed re-energized in the eighth and ninth rounds, when he pressed the action, landed right hands and mostly kept Zon on his back foot.

Zon stunned Munguia with a left uppercut barely 50 seconds into the sixth round. Zon attacked the vulnerable champion and landed several hard punches thereafter.

Munguia went down to his gloves and knees with about 1:45 to go in the sixth, but Weeks ruled he was pushed down. An exhausted Munguia surprisingly fended off Zon’s ensuing onslaught and threw hard shots of his own back at the tiring challenger later in the sixth.

“Well, he caught me and then I caught him,” Munguia said. “And then I just got careless, and then he caught me again. But again, that’s part of the process, that’s part of learning.”

Munguia’s right rocked Zon with under 20 seconds to go in the fifth round.

Zon and Munguia traded punishing punches in the second half of the fourth round. A right by Munguia moved Zon backward with about 15 seconds to go in the fourth and indicated he was starting to wear down the challenger.

Munguia made defensive adjustments in the third round. He fought off the ropes less and landed left hooks and straight rights on the defensively deficient challenger, but Zon caught Munguia with a right uppercut that made Munguia cover up toward the end of the third.

Zon landed various punches during what was a successful second round for the challenger until Munguia began letting his hands go in the final minute of it.

Referee Tony Weeks warned Munguia and Zon for throwing punches when he called for a break a few seconds before the midway mark of the opening round. Zon tried to rough up Munguia throughout the first three minutes of their bout, when he continually backed the champion into the ropes.

Eleven rounds later, Munguia admitted he wasn’t satisfied with how he performed overall.

“I would give myself a six, seven out of 10,” Munguia said. “There were a few things that failed. There were a few things that I did not do. But I’m happy with my win and I’m just gonna go back and keep working.”