By Scott Gilfoid: After being kicked in the groin by WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders’ son at Friday’s weigh-in, Willie Monroe Jr. is ready for some payback tonight when he gets inside the ring with the unbeaten Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs) at the Copper Box Arena in London, England.
Monroe is naturally not happy with the way he’s been treated in the run up to the Saunders fight. He’s been trash talked nonstop by Saunders, and called names. To top it all off, Monroe Jr. was attacked by Saunders’ 7-year-old son while he was on stage at the weigh-in. Saunders didn’t have much to say about the incident other than defending his son by saying he’s been taught to protect himself when he’s touched. Monroe Jr. patted Saunders’ son on top of his head when he walked up to him when they were on stage.
Here’s what Saunders said on his Twitter about the incident involving his son and Monroe Jr.:
My sons been taught when A stranger puts their hands on them they don't know punch and run away self defence @boxnationtv @frankwarren_tv👍🏻
— billyjoesaunders (@bjsaunders_) September 15, 2017
Saunders looks thin, weak and weight drained from having lost a mess of weight for this fight. While some of Saunders’ boxing fans have been tripping over themselves to compliment how think Saunders is looking, I personally think he looks awful. Saunders has lost too much weight in a hurry and he appears depleted. Saunders looks like he lost a lot of muscle along with the fat. That’s not good for him, especially going against a versatile fighter like Monroe Jr.
Monroe Jr. (21-2, 6 KOs) believes that Saunders is “terrified” of getting inside the ring with him and losing his WBO 160 lb. title. Getting beaten by Monroe Jr. will result in Saunders missing out on the cash-out level payday against Gennady “GGG” Golovkin or Saul Canelo Alvarez. The winner of tonight’s Gennady vs. Alvarez fight will eventually turn their attention to fighting the Saunders-Monroe Jr. winner. It may not be this year, but it’ll take place at some point.
Saunders wants to keep his WBO title long enough for him to fight the Canelo-GGG winner. Monroe Jr. can wreck Saunders dream by giving him a beating tonight in front of his own boxing fans in London. Monroe Jr. would then slide into position to fight Canelo or GGG.
“I’ve been a gentleman the whole time,” said Monroe Jr. to IFL TV. “These guys have been jerks. This is what happens when a man is terrified,” said Monroe Jr. about Saunders.
Well, Monroe Jr. can definitely fix Saunders’ wagon by beating the brakes off him tonight to take his WBO title, and ruin his plans on fighting the Canelo-Gennady winner. However, there’s a lot of doubt whether Monroe Jr. will be given a decision even if he beats Saunders. Monroe Jr. is going in Saunders’ backyard to take this fight, and there isn’t any U.S television. It’s a fight that Monroe Jr. is going to be out there all by himself with his team. Winning a decision may prove to be difficult for Monroe Jr.
Paulie Malignaggi thinks that Monroe Jr. can beat Saunders, but he has doubts whether he’ll be given the win.
”I think Monroe Jr. can win the fight,” said Malignaggi. ”I just don’t know if he can get the decisions. That’s the shame with being with a lesser promoter. You’ve got to go to someone else’s backyard them there. I think Monroe could be the favorite to win. Now he’s got to fight him in England with no U.S TV. You’ve got to hope you don’t get robbed. That’s not to say that Billy Joe Saunders can’t win the fight out right, because Billy Joe Saunders is a solid young fighter, and he’s got a win over [Chris] Eubank Jr. But I just think Monroe has a lot of adversity here. You’re going to be in England. The judges are against you, the referee against you,” said Malignaggi.
I hate to say it but I think Monroe is going to need to knock Saunders clean out for him to have a chance of winning his fight. I’ve been saying his since the Saunders vs. Monroe Jr. fight was first signed. I saw what happened to Artur Akavov when he came to the UK to fight Saunders on December 3 last year in Scotland. Akovov fought well enough to deserve the win in the eyes of ton of boxing fans, including this writer, but the judges gave it to Saunders. Monroe Jr. might need to give Saunders a royal beating tonight for him to take the judges out of play and walk out of the ring with his World Boxing Organization 160 lb. title.
”I’m ready to rock and roll,” said Saunders to IFL TV. ”If he was here, I’d hit him. I’ll deal with the American bum first, and then I’ll move on. He’s going to get smashed, that’s for sure. He’s going to get dealt with,” said Saunders.
Saunders isn’t a knockout artist, so I’m trying to figure out why he’s talking bold like he’s a big puncher. Saunders is one of those finesse type guys with his 50% knockout ratio. Those knockouts have come against weak domestic level opposition. Saunders hasn’t knocked out any of the talented fighters in the middleweight division. Saunders barely scraped by Andy Lee and Chris Eubank Jr. in beating them both by close, controversial decisions.
I had Eubank Jr. beating Saunders and Lee deserving a draw. Monroe’s lack of punching power hurts his chances of taking the judges out of play for tonight’s fight against Saunders. That’s the problem that Monroe Jr. has tonight. He can’t punch, and that means he’s got to beat Saunders badly enough to where the judges have an easy time picking the winner.
Monroe Jr. was stopped by Golovkin in the 6h round on May 16, 2015. Golovkin knocked Monroe Jr. down 3 times in the fight before the referee Jack Reiss stopped the fight in round 6. Monroe Jr. has won his last two fights in beating John Thompson and Gabriel Rosado by decisions. Monroe Jr. looked good in both fights. He hasn’t fought in over 1 year though since beating Rosado by a 12 round unanimous decision on September 17, 2016.
Saunders said this on his Instagram about his experiences in the UK during the buildup for the Saunders fight:
”I honestly thought people in London were cool but I’ve called a [expletive]..a wanker…a Latin [expletive] etc and now at the weigh ins They bring a kid on stage to punch me in the Nuts and nothing was done about it @frank_warren_official should be ashamed of himself.”
Monroe Jr. has found out how badly Saunders wants this fight. I can’t remember Saunders ever doing this amount of trash talking before in the past. I think Saunders realizes what he stands to lose if he gets beaten by Monroe Jr. Saunders will lose out on TONS of sweet cash if he gets beaten by Monroe Jr. tonight. Saunders can forget about Golovkin or Canelo ever fighting him if he loses to Monroe Jr.
There’s nothing about Saunders that will make those two fighters to want to fight him unless he has the WBO title in his possession. If Saunders had confidence, he would feel like he could work his way back into position to fight for a world title against Canelo or Golovkin. The middleweight division has gotten good lately. For Saunders to have to fight his way to a mandatory spot, I think he can do it. If Saunders had to fight a talent like Sergiy Derevyanchenko or David Lemieux, he might as well forget it, because those guys would work him over and have an easy time of it.
”I’m going to go with Golovkin,” said Saunders in picking Triple G to beat Canelo Alvarez tonight. ”Golovkin is looking a little bit fresher at the moment, even though he’s a bit older. I think Canelo might have overdone it a little bit. I want Golovkin to win. He’s the invincible man. He’s the man that can’t be beat. I’ve got to come through mine. He’s got to come through his,” said Saunders.
Golovkin might win, but if he loses, I’m not sure that Canelo will bother fighting the Saunders-Monroe Jr. winner. Canelo doesn’t care about collecting paper titles. He just wants to fight the best. As such, Saunders has got to hope that Golovkin wins the fight, because if he loses, he might end up with nothing. I don’t see Canelo wasting his time fighting Saunders.
