Monroe Jr: Canelo beats GGG!

By Boxing News - 11/25/2015 - Comments

1-golovkin3 (11)By Dan Ambrose: Willie Monroe Jr. was very impressed with the performance of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) last Saturday night in his 12 round unanimous decision victory over Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) to win the WBC middleweight title.

Monroe Jr. came away from watching the fight with the belief that the 25-year-old Canelo would definitely beat Golovkin when/if they face each other. Monroe Jr. lost to Golovkin earlier this year in getting stopped in the 6th round last May at The Forum in Inglewood, California.

Monroe Jr. came away from the experience saying that Golovkin doesn’t hit as hard as he thought he would. Monroe Jr. also felt that he was able to give Golovkin problems in a number of rounds before he was stopped in the 6th.

Golovkin looked out of breath after the 4th and 5th rounds had ended. However, he got to Monroe late in the 5th to hurt him, and then in the 6th, he dropped Monroe. The fight was then stopped when Monroe Jr. told referee Jack Reiss that he didn’t want to continue.

The thing is, Golovkin knocked Monroe Jr. down twice in the 2nd round. It looked like Golovkin could have finished him off in the 2nd or the 3rd, but he appeared to let up on him and not hit him with anything really big like he’d done for the two knockdowns.

“I think Canelo beats Triple G,” Monroe said to esnewsreporting. “Most of my success with Triple G was on the inside. I didn’t realize how good of a midrange fighter Triple G was. Canelo showed great reflexes [against Cotto], and Gennady is not that fast. I just think on the inside and counter punching, Canelo showed does awesome. I would give it to Canelo [to beat Golovkin] hands down actually. If Canelo doesn’t beat him, then I’d like to work my way back to get another crack at Triple G. I give Triple G no chance against Andre Ward. They know they can’t handle Ward. What they’re trying to do is bash him in the media and make him look bad. I think Andre beats anybody from 160 to 175,” Monroe said.

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It almost sounds like Monroe has sour grapes about him being knocked out by Golovkin in the past. The fight wasn’t competitive. It looked like Golovkin carried Monroe to the 6th round before knocking him out.

Canelo barely beat Cotto. I know the scores were extremely lopsided in Canelo’s favor, but most boxing fans saw it as a narrow victory for Canelo. He struggled with Cotto’s boxing skills, and looked very, very heavy for the fight. Canelo looked like he was easily in the 180s for the fight.

If Canelo agrees to fight Golovkin, he won’t have the same kind of mammoth weight advantage over him like he did against the tiny Cotto. I suspect Canelo would rehydrate to 185, and that would give him a 15 pound weight advantage over the 170lb Golovkin, but I don’t think that would be enough.

If Canelo isn’t ready to take the fight with Golovkin right now, then he’s going to need some help from the World Boxing Council to let him steer around him. Golovkin is the WBC mandatory challenge, and the President of the WBC Mauricio Suliaman had been saying recently that Canelo must face Golovkin next. However, since Canelo won the WBC title last night, Suliaman has been quiet on the subject of forcing Canelo to fight Golovkin.

Suliaman said that he’ll giving a status update this Monday about what he and the WBC plan on doing about the Golovkin and Canelo situation. It didn’t sound like Suliaman is going to force Canelo to fight Golovkin. It sounded more like Suliaman is going to let Canelo face someone else next. If that winds up being the case, then it puts Golovkin in a bad position where he’ll need to face his IBF mandatory challenger Tureano Johnson in the first quarter of 2016.

It’s hard to imagine Canelo being able to beat Golovkin. With all the shots that Cotto was landing against Canelo, I think Golovkin would knock Canelo out if he was able to land a similar amount. Cotto wasn’t throwing many body shots in the fight despite the fact that Canelo has shown in the past to have problems when getting hit to the body.



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