Bruno Surace seemed to be a prototypical opponent promoters use for contracted champions or contenders they’re simply attempting to keep busy.

Unbeaten, but unproven at the highest level. Marginally credible, yet incapable of beating the heavily favored house fighter.

Surace’s record looked good on paper (25-0-2, 4 KOs). The undefeated Frenchman was solid enough to justify as legitimate, though his knockout ratio (15 percent) made him perfectly safe for a former champion commended for his granite chin.

Until he wasn’t.

Late in the sixth round, an opportunistic Surace scored The Ring’s “Upset of the Year” for 2024 when he got great extension on a picturesque right hand that knocked Jaime Munguia flat on his back and off the comeback trail. A disoriented Munguia made it to his feet, just barely, before referee Juan Jose Ramirez counted to 10 on December 14 at Estadio Caliente in Tijuana, Mexico.

Ramirez determined, though, that a discombobulated Munguia shouldn’t continue. Just like that, in a stunning instant, Marseilles’ Surace changed his life at 2:36 of the sixth round, much to the surprise of Munguia’s adoring hometown fans.

Surace was among the 10 honorees Saturday night during The Ring’s inaugural awards gala. DAZN streamed the event live from Old Royal Naval College in London.

Munguia, whose only previous loss came against pound-for-pound superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, entered the ring as a 35-1 favorite, according to FanDuel sportsbook. The 28-year-old former WBO junior middleweight champion had not been knocked out in any of his first 45 professional fights, not even by the heavy-handed Alvarez, who dropped Munguia in the fourth round on his way to a convincing 12-round, unanimous-decision win May 4 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Fernando Beltran, Munguia’s co-promoter, told The Ring’s Manouk Akopyan on Wednesday that Surace and Munguia have agreed to fight again April 12 at a venue to be determined in Mexico.