By Dan Ambrose: Gennady Golovkin (32-0, 29 KOs) is expected to run over Willie Monroe (19-1, 6 KOs) this Saturday night he’s little more than a speed bump in their fight on HBO Championship Boxing. Golovkin is a heavy favorite, and he’s got a big advantage in punching power.
What Golovkin doesn’t have is the same hand speed, defensive skills or the ability to move the way that Monroe can. Whether that results in Monroe scoring an upset remains to be seen, but there’s no denying that the American fighter has a better chance in this fight compared to some of Golovkin’s recent opponents. Monroe’s game is built upon him surviving.
Fighting from an underdog perspective gives Monroe the kind of motivation that he thrives on for him to succeed. He says he wouldn’t feel comfortable if he were the favorite in his fights. Of course, him being the underdog good be a thing of the past if he rises up and defeats the 33-year-old Golovkin on Saturday night. If he’s able to beat a fighter in Golovkin’s class then that’s a good sign that he would do equally well against guys like Peter Quillin, Miguel Cotto, Andy Lee and Daniel Jacobs if he could get a fight against any of them.
“Being an underdog is what I relish because those are the moments where I rise to the occasion,” Monroe said to ESPN.com. “Sometimes I surprise myself with how good I do, so I’m in my element. If I was the favorite, then I’d be a little worried. But being the underdog is what I actually relish because it motivates me to do what I need to do.”
Being the underdog still won’t mean anything for Monroe unless he can find the talent to get the victory. The reason why Monroe is considered the underdog is because he’s been studied really well by a lot of boxing experts and deemed to be not in the same class as Golovkin. It’s one for Monroe to have pulled off a big upset in winning the 2014 Boxcino tournament, but quite another thing to rise up to beat a quality A-class middleweight like Golovkin.
The guys that Monroe defeated in the Boxcino tournament were little more than C-level fighters at best. They weren’t high caliber fighters. The best guy that Monroe beat was Brandon Adams, a fighter that would be out of his class if he were to face a high quality middleweight. Monroe is going to need to show more talent than he did in his fights against Brian Vera, Vitaliy Kopylenko, Adams, and Donatas Bondorovas.
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