By Edward Chaykovsky
Middleweight contender Willie Monroe Jr., who was stopped last year in six rounds by WBC/WBA/IBO/IBF middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (36-0, 33KOs), believes his former conqueror is not taking any risks.
Golovkin took a lot of heat last month when traveled to London to fight IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook, who was moving up by two weight divisions and thirteen pounds to take the fight. Brook suffered a fractured orbital bone and was stopped in five rounds.
At the moment Golovkin's handlers are in negotiations to face mandatory challenger Daniel Jacobs on a date in March, and they are also in discussions for a fight with Mexican superstar Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez next September.
Canelo has taken the brunt of the bashing from angry boxing fans, who feel the two division champion is avoiding a dangerous risk by delaying a mega-fight meeting with Golovkin.
Monroe doesn't make any excuses for Canelo, but he also feels Golovkin is not taking any risks himself. He wants to see Golovkin test himself by facing a top fighter from super middleweight or a light heavyweight like Andre Ward (30-0, 15KOs).
"I think a lot of fighters need to take more risks, it’s not just Canelo. What about GGG? He’s the best at middleweight, a unified champion, when will we see him go up to super-middle or light-heavy? Kell Brook jumped two weight classes, he wasn’t even considered a big puncher at welterweight whereas ‘GGG’ is considered a super puncher, so he would still have an advantage if he went up to 168-pounds or 175, so with that advantage why doesn’t he go up?, Monroe told George Gigney of Boxing News.
In the opinion of Monroe, all fighters should be held to the same standard - if fans are going to give Canelo heat for not moving up to fight Golovkin, then Golovkin should get the same type of heat to move up and face Ward.
"If we’re going to challenge one great fighter to do something, we need to hold all great fighters to the same standard. If we’re going to tell Canelo to go up and fight GGG people should also tell GGG to go up and fight Andre Ward – Ward is going up to fight [Sergey] Kovalev, another great fighter stepping up to a challenge," Monroe said.