Jaime Munguia rebounds from loss to Canelo Alvarez with impressive effort in KO of gritty Eric Bazinyan

Jaime Munguia changed trainers and promoters after his loss in May to Canelo Alvarez, his first after 43 consecutive victories. He switched from Freddie Roach to Erik Morales as his trainer and from Golden Boy Promotions to Top Rank as his promoter heading into Friday's super middleweight clash with Eric Bazinyan at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Ariz.

What didn't change was Munguia's tenacity, punching accuracy and love of the fight. He overcame a spirited bid by Bazinyan to record his 35th knockout with a flurry of shots at 2:36 of the 10th. Munguia was up 88-83, 87-84 and 86-85 at the time of the stoppage, but he rendered the judges moot by switching his attack to the body in the middle of the fight.

Bazinyan was successful early with a jab and an occasional right hand behind it. But Munguia, now 44-1, went at Bazinyan's body with a vengeance beginning around the fifth round and that changed the flow of the fight. According to CompuBox, Munguia landed 147 of 497 total punches, with 53 of those shots connecting on Bazinyan's midsection.

Bazinyan was ahead after five on the card of David Sutherland, but Munguia's emphasis on working the midsection dropped Bazinyan's hands, opened opportunities for Munguia upstairs and left Bazinyan unaware of what just had hit him.

“I felt like I was winning," Bazinyan said. "I felt he was very frustrated with my jab, right hand and counters. He was getting tired. All of a sudden, I got caught. I don’t know what happened there.”

What happened is that one of the world's elite super middleweights stepped up his game and Bazinyan didn't have the weapons to answer. 

The end came late in the 10th as Munguia, sensing he'd weakened his opponent, let his hands go. Bazinyan got his gloves on a lot of the punches, but two good rights got through and Bazinyan slumped in the corner as Taylor tolled the count.

Munguia knew Bazinyan wasn't going to beat the count and climbed on the ropes as Taylor counted down the final few seconds.

"It was a fight I had to do intelligently," Munguia said. "He’s strong. He hits hard. So, we had to break him down and be careful with shots to the body. And in the 10th round, that’s when I decided to come out with everything. And that’s how we go the knockout.”

It was an impressive performance and showed that Munguia deserves to be considered among the elite at 168. There are plenty of good fights out there for him, including Bazinyan's stablemate, Christian Mbili, as well as former champion Caleb Plant and Edgar Berlanga.

Munguia said he'd like either Plant or Berlanga, two recent Alvarez victims, next. A fight with Plant would be high-level business, but either way, Munguia is going to be a force in a suddenly hot division.

"There are great things to come, great fights at 168 pounds," Munguia said. "There’s Caleb Plant, Berlanga, Christian Mbilli. There are great fights, and we will give great wars as well.”

That is the one thing that you know about Munguia: He's giving it everything he has every time he steps between those ropes.