In my conversation with Jorge Arce (48-4-1, 37KO) the morning of the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez rematch back in March, “Travieso” made it quite clear that he was only interested in big name fights and his obvious frustration was easily palatable.  His disappointment in not securing the big money fights is understandable since a couple of years ago Arce was poised to take the torch as the next big Mexican warrior from the likes of Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera.  With those bright shining stars clearly past their prime and with Arce’s exciting come forward blood and face be damned full of heart style, it was simple for “Travieso” to be the next engine for the passionate Mexican fans to hitch their wagon too.
But on the night of April 14th ‘07 when Arce met fellow Mexican Cristian Mijares, those plans came to a lopsided end.  The  technically superior southpaw Mijares took his time under the spotlight by the horns and completely dominated the popular Arce over twelve rounds to defend his WBC title with scores of 119-109, 118-110 and 117-111 which showed that Arce at best won only three rounds.

Since then, Arce had a tough time winning against another southpaw the insignificant WBC Latino bantamweight title versus Tomas Rojas late last year and defended it once already this past December. 

The fall from the Top Rank pedestal was swift and painful.

Even though on Saturday night Arce will be headlining a Bob Arum produced Pay per View, it is a far cry from the fight cards Arce was either headlining or the semi main event a couple of years ago.  With impressive fan friendly wins over the likes of Hussein Hussein twice and Rosendo Alvarez on big time undercards such as Morales-Pacquiao I, Castillo-Corrales II and Mayweather Jr.-Judah, Arce was able to win the hearts of die hard boxing fans as he would end the fights impressively more often than not bathed in his own blood.  Arce even headlined a broadcast of HBO’s Boxing After Dark out of Los Angeles early last year when he rode a horse in his ring walk and faced a reluctant Julio David Roque Ler, an unknown Argentinean.
Then came Mijares.
Now Mirajes (34-3-2, 14KO) takes his spot in the limelight when he steps up to the biggest stage of his career and carries the “Noche de Campeones” fight card on his shoulders.

Until his meeting with Arce, Mijares was an obscure technician plying his wares in second tier boxing plzas through out Mexico.  Early last year Mijares captured the coveted green WBC belt when he defeated Katsushige Kawashima in the land of the rising sun, proving that he was willing to travel overseas for his chance at glory.

A mere three months later, he defended against Arce. 

In the clash Arce was never able to unlock the mystery of the southpaw boxer.  Mijares was able to maintain the action on the outside keeping Arce at bay and never allowing the shorter brawler to get on the inside and make the fight into a street fight.

In Muñoz (32-2, 27KO), Mijares finds a man that has only been defeated twice but by the same man.  Martin Castillo was able to get the better of the South American in ’04 and again in ’06, both times for the same title he holds now.

The great equalizer is the 84% KO ratio that Muñoz carries in his fists.  But as styles make fights Muñoz might need more than dynamite to beat Mijares.

A direct line to Aguascalientes and find out what not to do may be a good start…

By Felipe Leon, SDFights.com