Gabriel Rosado pulled off a stunning upset with his one-punch knockout of Bektemir Melikuziev this past June.

Among those who were surprised by the outcome was Jaime Munguia, who headlined the June 19 DAZN show from Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas and was rooting for the very outcome that came of the evening’s chief support. The development paved the way for the unbeaten former junior middleweight option to ultimately land his next opponent, a path that was previously discussed though admittedly not expected.

“Honestly, we weren’t really counting on Gabe to beat Bek in that fight,” Munguia confessed to BoxingScene.com. “Everyone thought that Bek was going to win. Gabe surprised me and a lot of other people in that fight.

“When I saw the knockout, I was impressed. I was happy for Gabe. But it wasn’t like I knew at that moment that he would be my next opponent. It was a chance to continue our conversation about Gabe being my next opponent. It continued to be an open conversation until we reached terms.”

The two eventually came to an agreement for a middleweight bout which headlines a DAZN event this Saturday from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Tijuana’s Munguia (37-0, 30KOs) enters his fourth career middleweight bout after having previously reigned as a WBO junior middleweight titlist, with the expectation of moving towards becoming a two-division titlist in 2022 should he prevail this weekend.

There existed the opportunity for such a step to take place, as Munguia and former title challenger Sergey Derevyanchenko (13-3, 10KOs) were previously ordered by the WBC to enter talks for a title eliminator. It was accepted by the WBC that Munguia would first proceed with a previously discussed showdown with Philadelphia’s Rosado (26-13-1, 15KOs) moving forward—with a win—with the final eliminator as his first fight of 2022.

A fight with Ukraine’s Derevyanchenko was admittedly on Munguia’s mind prior to continuing talks for this bout as the two are the highest ranked contenders in the current WBC rankings. Munguia—who is also the WBO number-one contender at middleweight—preserved his place following his one-sided, sixth-round knockout of former title challenger Kamil Szeremeta this past June, less than an hour after Rosado registered his Knockout of the Year candidate.

The chain of events that evening provided greater momentum towards coming to terms for this weekend. Prior to that point, it was little more than an idea.

“We spoke about the fight even leading into that June 19 show. Nothing was ever confirmed, we just concentrated on our own fights,” noted Munguia, who has scored stoppage wins in all three middleweight fights to date. “It was casually discussed if we both won that it would be an option for my next fight.

“If Gabe didn’t win that night, I probably would have went straight to Derevyanchenko and the eliminator that the WBC plans to order after this fight. Now I’m in a position where I have the opportunity to do both.”

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