By Keith Idec
Willie Monroe Jr. wants another shot at Gennady Golovkin.
If Monroe can beat Billy Joe Saunders to win the WBO middleweight title Saturday in London, that rematch against Golovkin is much more likely to take place if Golovkin conquers Canelo Alvarez in their showdown Saturday night in Las Vegas. As much as Monroe wants a chance to avenge his sixth-round technical knockout loss to Golovkin in May 2015, the middleweight contender doesn’t think Golovkin will beat Alvarez.
The southpaw from Rochester, New York, anticipates Alvarez giving Golovkin too much trouble inside, picking him apart and stopping him sometime late in their scheduled 12-round fight for Golovkin’s IBF, IBO and WBA middleweight titles at T-Mobile Arena.
“After my fight with Golovkin, when people saw the inside work I did on Golovkin, they understand that Golovkin is a mid-range fighter,” Monroe told BoxingScene.com. “If you’re too far away from him, he’ll just try to cut you off. If you’re too close to him and you smother him, and work on the inside and do body work, he’s not comfortable. He’s comfortable waiting until you’re in his wheelhouse.
“If you look at our fight, after I fought him people started unlocking the quote, unquote code. Everybody was scared of him, but after I laid into him for a couple rounds you had welterweights saying, ‘I’ll go fight him.’ He was no longer ‘The Boogeyman,’ so I think Canelo has what it takes. He’s younger, he’s faster and the only style that beats Canelo is boxers who have good footwork and are fast on their feet. No other styles give Canelo problems.”
Golovkin has knocked out 89 percent of his professional opponents, but Monroe realizes Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) is a dangerous counter-puncher who also can hurt Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) in their HBO Pay-Per-View main event.
“Let’s not sit here and act stupid – Canelo’s a power puncher, also,” Monroe said. “And Canelo’s a counter-puncher, so he needs you to come to him to be most effective. And Golovkin is no Erislandy Lara or Willie Monroe. He’s not gonna be on his toes, moving.
“Golovkin’s gonna be coming straight to Canelo and he’s gonna have to pay a big price of a lot of combination punches and body work. And I just don’t think he’ll be able to handle it. I think after seven or eight rounds, we’ll just start to see him really slow down. Maybe even after five or six rounds we’ll see him slow down, and then we’ll see Canelo just walk on to victory or possibly a late-round stoppage.”
If that happens and Monroe comes home with the WBO middleweight title, Monroe won’t complain. No matter who wins the Alvarez-Golovkin fight, owning one of the middleweight titles would give Monroe leverage to make plenty of money in his following fight.
“My heart is on the fence because my heart and my pride as a champion and a man says I want Golovkin again,” Monroe said. “But my pockets also say I want Canelo, so I’m on the fence with it. There would be more money in a Canelo fight, but there would be a shot at redemption and to get my get-back in a Triple-G fight. Either way it goes, it’s great for me.”
A few hours before Alvarez and Golovkin go at it, Monroe (21-2, 6 KOs) will challenge England’s Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs) for his WBO middleweight title at Copper Box Arena in London (Box Nation; 7 p.m. BST).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
