By Steve Kim

Last December 2nd at the Madison Square Garden, Sadam Ali (26-1, 14 KO's) pulled of a major upset by defeating Miguel Cotto in what was his final professional bout.

This victory also came with the WBO junior middleweight belt and now later tonight at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, New York - he makes his first title defense against Jaime Munguia, a late replacement for mandatory challenger Liam Smith.

Smith withdrew from the contest with illness a few short weeks ago.

So from going to a future Hall-of-Famer to facing a relatively anonymous Mexican, is there any chance of a letdown.

"No," insisted Andre Rozier, who trains Ali, to BoxingScene.com.

"Sadam is not actually that type of fighter and he's not that type of kid. He has a care free, happy-go-lucky attitude and when Liam pulled out he said, 'Well, I hope they find me a new opponent because I want to fight somebody. I've been training for it and I don't care who I fight.' That's his attitude.

"We were presented with Jaime and he said, 'Well, OK we got a dance partner and now it's time for me to shine' and that's how he feels."

In Munguia he's facing a heavy-handed banger who has a record of 28-0 (24 KO's) but is unproven at the world-class level.

Rozier admitted - "I really don't know too much about him. I didn't know who he was until I found out we were actually boxing him and I took a look at few of his fights he had and I mean, he's an energetic, young man, he's very young, he's got a little height on him. He's not particularly fast, he's not that one-punch knockout guy. He gets some of those stoppages against guys in the relative level of fighters that he's been dealing with by attrition. landing a few shots here and there."

The respected trainer believes though that class will show on Saturday night.

"I think this is an assignment that's going to be a bit too much for Jaime. He might think, 'Oh, I'm a big guy, I've been knocking these guys out.' But the quality and caliber of his opponents will be taken to a new level. I think you're going to see that come Saturday."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.