A few months ago, Sadam Ali was looking forward to defending the WBO light middleweight title after his upset win over Miguel Cotto in Madison Square Garden last year. He was scheduled to fight Liam “Beefy” Smith, who was the #1 ranked contender for that belt. Due to an illness that got to Smith, the fighter from Brooklyn had to make a decision: either wait for Smith to recover or keep the fight date and fight someone else.

He chose to keep the date and fight Jaime Munguia, who was ranked #4 for the belt and was considered to be an opponent for Gennady Golovkin at the Stubhub Center in Carson, California. Well, instead of fighting Golovkin for the middleweight championship, he prepared to fight Ali for the light middleweight title.

He cashed in that opportunity in a big way as he easily defeated Sadam Ali in four rounds to win the WBO light middleweight title and move to 29-0 as a pro fighter. Ali drops to 26-2 with another knockout loss on his record. That previous loss came to Jesse Vargas at the DC Armory for the WBO welterweight title in March of 2016.

While it seemed like Sadam felt good at 154 against Cotto, he looked very small against Munguia. He was three inches shorter and the weight difference was visible once they came to the middle of the ring for the pre-fight instructions. Ali felt the power from the Mexican who started his pro career in 2013, and was knocked down twice in the first round. Jaime swarmed Sadam early and often, and while there were times that Sadam Ali tried to box in the ring, there was nothing that could keep the 21 year old off of him. In the second round, Munguia scored another knockdown after Ali was hurt and off balance. In the third round, there were big shots being landed by Munguia that had Ali in trouble again, and while he was not knocked down in that round, he did hit the canvas due to a slip.

At the end of that round, the corner of Sadam Ali were thinking about stopping the fight, and referee Gary Rosato was seriously considering doing so. They let the one minute break go through and have him come out to the fourth round, and that was a mistake on their part. A left hook at the 1:02 mark in Round 4 put Ali to the canvas again, and that made Rosato stop the fight immediately.