By Allan Fox: #11 WBO middleweight contender Gabriel Rosado (29-3, 13 KOs) is saying that he plans on making #15 WBO Willie Monroe Jr. (20-2, 6 KOs) quit when the two of them fight next month on September 17 in the co-feature bout on HBO pay-per-view at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The winner of the Rosado-Monroe Jr. is expected to be matched against fellow Golden Boy Promotions fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
“The big prize is Canelo,” Golden Boy Promotions executive Eric Gomez said on Monday. “The winner of (Rosado-Monroe) could very well be fighting Canelo in December.”
Just when that fight will take place is unknown. It could either be this December or in May of 2017. It probably won’t be in September next year, because supposedly that will be when Canelo will be fighting Golovkin; although many boxing fans highly doubt that will be happening. They expect Golden Boy to be using a walker or a cane and eating pureed food by the time Canelo finally fights him.
Rosado says that 29-year-old Monroe Jr. is mostly known for having quit in the 6th round in his fight against middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in May of 2015, and for having beaten a lot of ESPN fighters during the Boxcino tournament.
Both Rosado and Monroe Jr. were knocked out by Golovkin. Rosado made it to the 7th round before getting stopped by Golovkin in their fight in 2013. Of the two, Monroe probably gave Golovkin little more problems because he had him looking out of breath after four rounds last year. Golovkin looked a little gassed after the 4th. However, Golovkin seemed to kick it up a gear in the 5th round, when he nailed Monroe with some really hard shots that quickly changed the complexion of the fight permanently. In the 6th, Golovkin finished Monroe off by dropping him hard. Monroe got back to his feet and promptly told referee Jack Reiss that he didn’t want to continue fighting. However, earlier in the fight, Golovkin knocked Monroe down twice in the 2nd round and had him on the verge of a knockout. Golovkin said that he could have finished Monroe off but he wanted to keep him around longer, so he let the fight continue until getting serious again starting in the 5th.
For his part, Rosado gave Golovkin problems in the 5th round when he stopped running from him and turned and started attacking. Rosado was able to redden Golovkin’s eyes with his hard shots. Going into the 6th, the fight looked like it was turning around with Rosado coming on. However, Golovkin immediately hurt Rosado at the start of the 6th with a big right uppercut. From there on, a bloody Rosado went back to running until the fight was stopped in the 7th.
“You didn’t fight nobody. You didn’t fight no world class fighters. You fought GGG and quit. And I’m going to make you quit too,” said Rosado to Monroe via fightnews.com. “You’re nothing special dude. You fought a bunch of ESPN fighters. I’ve beat world class fighters dude. I’ve got world class fighters on my resume that I beat. You ain’t beat nobody special. You’re a bum!”
It’s difficult to predict a winner for the Rosado-Monroe fight, because both guys are flawed and little more than fringe contenders. Monroe has the better defense of the two, and he’s got the faster hand speed. Monroe Jr. can be difficult if he’s not pressured hard.
If Rosado doesn’t attack Monroe hard in every round by keeping the pressure on him, then he could up losing the fight like John Thompson did in Monroe’s last fight in June. Monroe won a 10 round unanimous decision. He was able to dominate the fight due to Thompson not pressuring him the way that Golovkin did. Monroe beat journeyman Brian Vera in January of last year by a 10 round decision. Vera didn’t put enough pressure on Monroe, and this enabled him to win an easy decision.
Of the two, Monroe would probably do better against Canelo because he would try and box him rather than slug it out the way that Rosado would. However, Monroe Jr. would likely get trapped by the much heavier Canelo and taken out in five or six rounds the way that he was by Golovkin.
To be honest, this isn’t much of a co-feature bout for the Canelo vs. Liam Smith card. Rosado is a decent fighter, but he’s still lost four out of his last seven fights in the last three years. His only wins during that stretch of time have come against Antonio Gutierrez and Joshua Clottey. Monroe’s resume is filled with ESPN guys like Bryan Adams, John Thompson, Brian Vera and Vitaly Kopylenko.
Monroe has past defeats to Golovkin and journeyman Darnell Boone. Monroe obviously struggles against fighters with big power; hence that would explain his losses to GGG and Boone. Those are both big punchers. With the Canelo-Smith being on HBO pay-per-view, you would expect a lot more for your money in terms of the co-feature bout. I don’t see Monroe Jr. or Rosado going anywhere in the middleweight division. They’re just contenders until they eventually slide out of the top 15 when they get a little older and wind up likely as journeyman.