Jaime Munguia worked hard to make it easy in the ring for his latest win.

The more difficult fight ahead can be convincing fans that he’s truly ready for the middleweight elite.

“We’re ready for [a middleweight] title shot,” Munguia vowed following his third-round knockout of D’Mitrius Ballard. “Like I said, we’re ready for anyone. I will take whichever one comes first.”

It has become a familiar tale for Tijuana’s Munguia (39-0, 30KOs) since his January 2020 middleweight debut following his WBO junior middleweight title. Following an 11th round stoppage of Ireland’s Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan was in position to next challenge current WBO middleweight titlist Demetrius Andrade (31-0, 19KOs). The pandemic slowed down everyone’s career, though it remains that way for Munguia who is now 5-0 (4KOs) at middleweight and with fans and media alike questioning his intention to truly face the best.

That issue was once again raised following Munguia’s stoppage win over Ballard (21-1-1, 13KOs), which came Saturday evening from Plaza Monumental in his Tijuana hometown. Munguia floored the unbeaten D.C.-area middleweight midway through round three before closing the show moments later for his first fight in his hometown since July 2017.

Munguia—still just 25-years-old—presently serves as the number one contender in the WBC and WBO rankings. Both sanctioning bodies are prepared to call for him to enter final title eliminators if his next fight isn’t versus Andrade or WBC tilist Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22KOs).

Carlos Adames waits in the wings for a hoped-for WBC title eliminator with Munguia following his ten-round win over former title challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko last December 5 in Los Angeles. On the WBO side, Kazakhstan’s Zhanibek Alimkhanuly is without an opponent for a planned interim title fight after Brazil’s Esquiva Falcao priced himself out of such an opportunity and decided to instead go the IBF route where he is the mandatory challenger.

The insistence is that any name mentioned will be fine for his next outing, in line with what he told the WBC regarding his plans in accepting the opportunity for his latest middleweight win.  

“This is the fight where I felt the strongest,” insisted Munguia. “I’m ready for anyone.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox