By Miguel Rivera
According to Eddie Reynoso, trainer of WBO junior middleweight champion Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (48-1-1, 34KOs), there are NEVER going to fight middleweight contender Willie Monroe Jr. (21-2, 6KOs).
Both fighters were in action on Saturday night at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Canelo headlined the event, knocking out unbeaten Liam Smith in the ninth round to capture the WBO junior middleweight world title. Monroe was in the co-featured attraction, winning a twelve round decision over Gabe Rosado.
Prior to the fight taking place, Golden Boy Promotions had mentioned that the winner of Monroe vs. Rosado was going to be a frontrunner to face Canelo on December 10th. It's no secret that Golden Boy, and Canelo, were hoping the winner would be Rosado - who is promoted by Golden Boy and has a come-forward aggressive style.
Monroe is the exact opposite of Rosado. He's a very crafty boxer who moves around selects his punches carefully. The fight with Rosado turned out to be a very boring affair and drew a lot of boos from the 51,000 fans in attendance.
Reynoso is not looking to have a repeat of Canelo's 2014 encounter with Erislandy Lara. Canelo spent much of the contest chasing after Lara and the clash of styles didn't exactly generate an appealing fight.
Even so, Golden Boy President Eric Gomez mentioned Monroe as a possibility - but cautioned that Canelo's next opponent will be finalized after a team meeting.
“He’s a very good fighter, a very good boxer,” Gomez said. “As far as is he going to fight Canelo next, we’ll sit down as a team and look at what’s next. We’ll discuss it as a team. He definitely deserves it. I give him all the props in the world because he fought a tough guy in Rosado who kept coming and just couldn’t figure him [Monroe] out. Monroe deserves a lot of accolades for that.”
Reynoso says it's never going to happen. If they are going to fight that type of style, he would rather have Canelo take a rematch with Lara than take a fight with Monroe.
"[Canelo] is never going to fight with Monroe. He doesn't fight or allows a fight to happen. You have to keep going after him to catch him. If that's the case [to go up against that kind of style], it's better for us to fight with Erislandy Lara," Reynoso said.
