By Dan Ambrose: Middleweight Willie Monroe Jr. sees no point in some boxing fans wanting Floyd Mayweather Jr. to come out of retirement and face IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin. Monroe thinks there is a double standard. He feels that fans in the past jumped all over Bernard Hopkins when he was targeting smaller fighters like welterweights Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad when he was fighting in the middleweight division. But then Monroe sees that Golovkin isn’t being held to the same standards by being able to call for a fight against Mayweather without being skewered by the boxing public.
“It wouldn’t make sense,” Monroe said to Fighthype about Mayweather fighting Golovkin. “People ask so much of Floyd. You have to remember that guy started his career out at what? 125lbs. He’s 38-year-old. Floyd doesn’t even walk around at 154 pounds. Floyd’s a little guy. Floyd fights at 47 and 154 because he’s got options. I don’t even know why people are calling for this fight…It’s okay for Triple G to try and pick on Floyd. Let’s be real here. I think it’s ridiculous. Floyd has brought up great fights. He’s the reason why boxing is where it is today. Respect him; let him have his props, and let him have his legacy. Let him be,” Monroe said.
You cannot blame Golovkin for wanting to get a fight against a fighter as popular as Mayweather. The money that Golovkin would make in a fight against Mayweather would be huge if he could get that fight. Monroe seems to think that Golovkin is too big to fight a guy like Mayweather, but in reality, Golovkin is lighter than Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, a fighter Mayweather willingly fought in 2013. Golovkin also weighs roughly the same as Marcos Maidana, who rehydrated to 165lbs for his first fight against Mayweather in May 2014. Golovkin weighs only five pounds more than Maidana at 170.
You have to wonder where Monroe was when Mayweather fought Canelo and Maidana. Monroe wasn’t standing on top of a soapbox complaining long and hard about Canelo and Maidana weighing more than Mayweather. Monroe wasn’t complaining that Canelo weighs more than Mayweather – and Golovkin – and therefore shouldn’t be fighting Mayweather. Monroe wasn’t pointing out that the 165lb Maidana was only 5 pounds away from Golovkin’s 170lbs for the weight he weighs in after he rehydrates for his middleweight contests.
I think the real issue people have with Golovkin is he is just too powerful for his own good. They are not going to give Golovkin a break like they gave the bigger Canelo and the equally big Maidana, because Golovkin arguably punches much harder than those guys.
Golovkin simply punches too hard for his own good, and that’s why he’s not being given a free pass to fight Mayweather like Maidana and Canelo did. People like Monroe were nowhere to be found to complain about the unfairness of Canelo and Maidana fighting Mayweather. But once Golovkin wants a fight with Mayweather, then all of a sudden it’s “ridiculous” despite the fact that Canelo is bigger than Golovkin and Maidana pretty much the same size.
Merry Christmas to my fans around the world! Looking forward to giving you more knockouts in 2016. pic.twitter.com/W4Tx5qLZky
— Gennady Golovkin (@GGGBoxing) December 25, 2015
I think when people like Monroe want to make an issue about Golovkin not being a fair fight for Mayweather, they need to point out that the reason why it’s unfair is because of Golovkin’s punching power, not his size.
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