By Allan Fox: IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) shined tonight in stopping American Willie Monroe Jr. (19-2, 6 KOs) by a 6th round knockout in a fight that Golovkin admitted that he carried Monroe to the 6th round because he didn’t want to finish him off quickly in the first couple of rounds.
Golovkin said after the fight that he wants a unification fight against one of the middleweight champions if he can’t get a fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or Miguel Cotto.
This means that GGG will be targeting WBO champion Andy Lee, and the winner of the June 20th fight between David Lemieux and Hassan N’Dam. That fight will have the vacant IBF middleweight title on the line.
Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler said after the fight “We can’t make those guys [Canelo and Cotto] fight him. If we could get Cotto in the ring it would be great. Canelo looks like he wants to wait to build it up some more.”
It would be nice if the Lemieux-N’Dam winner would like to fight Golovkin, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Lemieux is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, and the President of that company Oscar De La Hoya will almost surely look to wait a number of years before he bothers trying to put together a Golovkin vs. Lemieux or Golovkin vs. Canelo fight.
Andy Lee probably won’t bother taking a fight against Golovkin after the way he fought tonight. Golovkin’s punching power is scary, and I don’t think that Lee will want to mess with him. It would be too risky, and I don’t think Lee wants to become a contender again.
Monroe actually looked good in the 3rd and 4th rounds on Saturday night against Golovkin. Monroe landed some good shots, and showed excellent mobility.
Unfortunately, Monroe wasn’t able to land anything of note when he was on the move. He seemed to do better when he was stationary rather than when he was moving around the ring. Monroe was able to bruise Golovkin’s right eye, and get the better of him in the 3rd and 4th. But in the 5th, Golovkin staggered Monroe with a big shot after going after him hard from the start of the round. In the 6th, Golovkin turned up the heat and finished Monroe off after putting him down with a left uppercut. Monroe visited the canvas two times in the 2nd and one time in the 6th.
Monroe doesn’t have anything to be ashamed of tonight because he gave a good effort. Monroe would have given a lot of top middleweights and junior middleweights problems with the way he fought tonight. Monroe would have a decent chance of beating Canelo and Cotto with the way he fought.
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