By Scott Gilfoid: An emaciated looking WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs) weighed in at 160 pounds on Friday at his weigh-in for his title defense against No.5 WBC Willie Monroe Jr. (21-2, 6 KOs) for their fight this Saturday night at the Copper Box Arena in London, England. The 30-year-old Monroe Jr. also weighed in at 160 lbs.
The weigh-in was marred by Saunders’ younger son walking up to Monroe Jr. and punching him in the groin and then kicking him in the knee. It’s unclear what led up to that incident, as Monroe Jr. was standing on the stage moments after the weigh-in when the kid came up to him and let him have it. Saunders seemed to show no emotion during all of this. It was very, very odd.
Monroe Jr. wasn’t bothered by the punch and kick, thankfully. It would have been bad if Monroe was hurt by the low blow, as he had an important fight tomorrow night.
“I am more disheartened by Billy Joe Saunders non-reaction to his 7-year old child’s actions,” said Banner Promotions Vice-President, Matt Rowland. “With how Billy has been acting this week, we are more confident then ever that Willie will win this fight.”
Saunders has been working overtime trying to intimidate Monroe Jr. the best he can. Monroe Jr. has laughed off most of the insults from Saunders, but that hasn’t kept him from continuing to try. Saunders really needs this fight, and he doesn’t have the type of talent that would enable him to beat Monroe Jr. the way that Gennady Golovkin did in 2015. This is going to be a really tough fight for Saunders that he could very well lose. Monroe Jr. is a step up from Saunders’ last opponent Artur Akavov, and we all saw what happened to Saunders in that fight.
Saunders arguably won by a gift decision. If Monroe Jr. fights at a level above Akakov did, then we’ll see a Monroe Jr. victory on Saturday unless we have the same kind of scoring as the Saunders-Akavov fight. Monroe Jr. will need to make sure he takes the fight to Saunders to take the judges out of the fight. The last thing that Monroe Jr. needs is to wind up like Akavov did in his loss.
Monroe Jr. will need to make it so one-sided that there’s no way the judges can take his win away from him. Knocking out Saunders would be the best thing that Monroe Jr. can do to assure that he gets the ‘W’ on Saturday night, but I’m not sure if he’s got enough power to do that. Monroe’s last knockout win was 4 years ago when he stepped little known Toris Smith (3-35) in the 3rd round.
During the face-off between the two fighters, Saunders, 28, looked really keyed up like he wanted to reach out and swat Monroe Jr. Saunders looked upset at how relaxed Monroe Jr. was, as he was just smiling at him with his hands behind his back. I think the confidence of Monroe Jr. ticked Saunders off something awful. He seemed to want Monroe Jr. to show fear, and when that didn’t happen, he got upset. It’s too bad Saunders is one of those types of fighters that need to get an edge mentally when fighting. If he had enough talent to beat guys without trying to get inside their heads, he’d be a better fighter.
Monroe Jr. has a real chance of beating Saunders tomorrow night. Monroe has about as much punching power as Saunders. Where Monroe Jr. is better is in the stamina department. Monroe Jr. doesn’t gas out like Saunders does after 6 rounds. He’s also a much better inside fighter of the two, and the more mobile guy. Overall, I rate Monroe Jr. as the better fighter, and he’s at the peak of his career. Saunders’ prime seems to be in the rearview mirror at this point in his career. Saunders was at his best in 2013 and 2014. He’s been slipping as a fighter ever since. It could be the way that Saunders balloons up in weight between fights could be hurting him.
Saunders. is coming off of a career worst performance in his win over Artur Akavov last year on December 3 at the Lagoon Leisure Centre in Paisley, Scotland. Saunders won the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores 116-113, 116-112 and 115-113. A lot of boxing fans felt that Saunders should have lost the fight. I had Saunders losing to Akavov, but the fight took place in the UK. Akavov was the visiting fighter. I thought the scoring was awful. Saunders looked like an old man after the 5th, as he was gasping for breath, taking shots, and totally weak.
Akavov worked Saunders over in winning the last 7 rounds on my scorecard. The thing is, Saunders looked about as bad in his previous fight against Andy Lee, when he gassed out after the 5th. Saunders was given a 12 round majority decision win over Lee. I scored it as a draw. Saunders completely fell apart in the last 7 rounds.
Saunders needs a win over Monroe Jr. to keep alive his hopes of fighting the winner of the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight. Saunders won’t get a shot at the winner of the Canelo-Golovkin fight straightaway, as the two fighters will likely face each other again in a rematch. That means Saunders will have to fight another mandatory challenger. Currently the next highest rated challenger is David Lemieux. That’ll be a really tough fight for Saunders if the World Boxing Organization orders him to fight Lemieux. Saunders might not get to another world title defense if he can’t get past Monroe. This is a fight where Monroe Jr. has an excellent chance of ending Saunders’ time as the WBO champion.
