Tony Harrison: Monroe is an Easy Fight For Golovkin

By Ben Jacobs

Quietly building up his record off television to reach prospect status, Tony Harrison (20-0, 17 KOs) alerted boxing fans last month with a second round stoppage on ESPN's Friday Night Fights series against veteran Antwone Smith. The Detroit native returns to the network on April 17 when he will face Mexico's Pablo Munguia in a scheduled ten round bout, but Harrison isn't looing to go rounds despite never having been more than eight so far in his career.

"I think fights bring experience, you get the rounds in the gym," explained Harrison.

"When it's fight time I make it as short as possible. I get like 60-70 rounds a week to make sure I'm ready for any fight.

"I know he (Munguia) is very durable, he went the distance with his last opponents and had a split decision with Yudel Johnson, so I'm expecting a tough guy. He may be my toughest one yet in terms of his will to win.

"I'm very pleased to be back so quick," he continued.

"I just watched Andre Dirrell do the same thing, fight on ESPN and then come back and do it again so I'm very pleased. Now he's in contention to fight for the title."

Reflecting on his last, albeit brief performance, Harrison feels there is room for improvement despite impressing the viewers with his power and speed.

"I knocked out Antwone Smith and now I'm the main event again, I can now show my talent after being untelevised for 19 fights, so it's a blessing. I'm always my biggest critic. I felt I got hit too much while it lasted. There's a lot of things to work on, I need to straighten up my right hand more and punch through the targets. All in all I went in there and did what I was supposed to do, made it a short night."

Harrison believes he may be ready for some kind of title shot by the end of 2015 and his name has been linked on social media with a fight against fellow top prospect Julian Williams who has also been touted for a title shot given his impressive progress.

"The blueprint is given by Al Haymon, when Al feels I'm ready and I feel the same way, I may be able to fight for a title by the end on the year.

"The dude (Williams) is doing his thing but it's no compliment to me. I should be linked with 'Canelo' Álvarez and James Kirkland, or Cotto. That's the level I'm going to be on.

"I can make junior middleweight easily, sometimes I weigh 152, 153. I may go down to welterweight if the money and fight is right, even though I've never done it before. This next fight is at 154."

Not limited to working with quality fighters in Detroit, Tony has also sparred many rounds with the consensus best middleweight in the world, Gennady Golovkin, and does not believe Willie Monroe Jr can pose the Kazakh with any problems.

"Never, never do I see that. GGG cuts off the ring too easily, he has a strong jab and is a great puncher. Willie Monroe has his hands down a lot. That'll be a short night. Styles make fights and Willie has a bad style for him. Gennady, it's not his power, it's his pressure. I've been in the ring with him plenty of times, he has relentless pressure from start to finish. He has very good balance and he's a complete fighter. It's an easy night for him. Martin Murray is a championship contender and he went right through him. Somebody trying to outbox him won't work. He was a decorated amateur as well. I usually go for an underdog like Willie Monroe but I don't see Gennady taking him lightly."