By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Andre Rozier readily admits that he is bothered by the lack of credit the fighter he trains, Sadam Ali, has received for upsetting Miguel Cotto.

Ali’s critics contend that the newly crowned WBO super welterweight champion’s victory over Cotto (41-6, 33 KOs) was more about the 37-year-old Cotto’s decline than anything Ali did December 2 at Madison Square Garden. Many of those same detractors think late replacement Jaime Munguia will knock off Ali in the Brooklyn boxer’s first defense of the WBO 154-pound championship he won from Cotto five months ago.

Mexico’s Munguia (28-0, 24 KOs) stepped in on two weeks’ notice for England’s Liam Smith (26-1-1, 14 KOs), the mandatory challenger for Ali’s title. Smith, who once owned that same WBO super welterweight championship, withdrew from his fight against Ali (26-1, 14 KOs) late last month due to a skin condition that prevented him from training.

HBO will televise the Ali-Munguia match Saturday night from Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York (10 p.m. ET).

“Now Sadam is fighting an opponent who is 28-0, with 24 knockouts,” Rozier said Wednesday during a press event in Manhattan. “His resume reads nowhere near what Sadam’s is, and you still have people saying, ‘Well, you know, I think Sadam’s gonna lose this fight.’ That bothers me. That bothers me.

“When you excel to elite status and then you have a young man [Munguia] – and I’m not discrediting him, not at all – when you have a young man who hasn’t performed at the level or the stages that Sadam has, and you’re gonna give him credit to defeat Sadam Ali, you must be on crack. It’s not gonna go down that way.”

The 21-year-old Munguia has knocked out 86 percent of his opponents since he turned pro in July 2013. He has fought a very low level of opposition, though, and has boxed beyond the sixth round only once.

Munguia was willing to challenge Gennady Golovkin on short notice when Canelo Alvarez withdrew from their May 5 rematch. His ambition aside, Rozier isn’t convinced that the young, unbeaten contender is a more dangerous opponent than Smith.

“I’m not gonna say whether he’s a better opponent or not, but Liam Smith has faced better opposition,” Rozier said. “Jaime has fought a few guys several times, and definitely on his resume you have the butcher, the baker and the candlestick-maker, and a taxi driver. So this is gonna be an entirely different atmosphere for him. And I hope he’s ready for it because we’re bringing it a hundred percent. And I expect Sadam to look spectacular in this bout.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.