By Ian S Palmer
Canadian welterweight Antonin Decarie will be taking on Pablo Munguia of Mexico at the Lac Leamy Casino in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada on Friday, March 28. The scheduled 10-round bout will be shown on pay-per-view by Integrated Sports Media in the USA as part of the Fight Club Series.
The 31-year-old Decarie is ranked number eight in the world by the WBC and hails from nearby Montreal. He’s won his last two bouts against Salim Larbi and Cesar Chavez and is hoping to make a name for himself in this televised contest. He had a shot at the vacant WBA title back in 2010 but came out on the wrong end of a unanimous decision against Souleyman M’baye.
He then put a four-fight winning streak together, including a sixth-round stoppage against Alex Perez on HBO in the fall of 2012 before dropping a 10-round unanimous decision to Luis Carlos Abregu in Argentina last April. He enters this bout with a record of 29-2 along with Kos to his name. He’s faced some decent boxers during his career and has been quite competitive in all of his fights.
He said he learned a lot in his bouts against M’Baye, Perez, and Abregu and is hoping that experience will help him out in the future, starting with this showdown against Munguia. Decarie said he’s not taking the Mexican too lightly as he knows he’s not traveling all the way to Canada just to collect a paycheque. Decarie has some good boxing skills and is pretty sound technically. He’s pretty active in the ring and isn’t afraid to let his hands go.
The one thing Decarie doesn’t really possess is a lot of power in his punches. He needs to make sure he stays active to rack up the points since most of his wins come via the judges’ scorecards Since he’s more or less fighting in his hometown here Munguia, a former Mexican champ, may want to try to win this fight within the distance.
Munguia has decent power and Decarie has been on the canvas before so he might like his chances here and could go for a stoppage instead of leaving the outcome in the hands of the judges. The Mexican enters the ring on a three-fight winning streak and should be quite confident about his chances. However, he’s going to have to be careful since he’s lost three of his four fights by stoppage. Even though Decarie’s not a big puncher he needs to make sure he doesn’t leave himself open or walk into a shot.
Decarie’s been in with some good opponents since turning pro back in 2005 and could be a little on the underrated side. He needs to get off first and take the fight to Munguia to keep his opponent from gaining confidence. As long as his chin can take the Mexican’s best shots Decarie should take this 10 rounder by a unanimous decision in front of the home fans.
