By Dan Ambrose: Former middleweight world title challenger Willie Monroe Jr. is highly complementary of IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin after losing to him three years ago by a 5th round knockout loss.
Monroe Jr. says Golovkin is a lot more complicated than most other fighters due to the different things he can do inside the ring. Monroe Jr. that you can’t just see GGG as a power puncher, because he can do a lot more than that. He can box, take shots, and win fights just with his skills rather than his punching power.
Monroe Jr. believes that there are only two fighters that have a chance against Golovkin right now, and that’s Daniel Jacobs and Saul Canelo Alvarez. Monroe doesn’t believe WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders has much of a chance against Golovkin, and he sees that as an easy fight for the Kazakhstan fighter. Golovkin already beat Jacobs by a 12 round unanimous decision last year in March. That was a close fight, but it was a close win for GGG.
Golovkin and Canelo fought to a 12 round draw in their fight last September. Some believe that Golovkin’s fight against Jacobs was much closer than his fight with the 27-year-old Canelo, who appeared to lose 8 rounds to 4 against GGG. Jacobs vs. Golovkin looked like a fight that GGG won 7 rounds to 5. Jacobs came to fight. Canelo didn’t. That’s the difference. Canelo was running from Triple G for most of the fight, and only trying to steal the rounds rather than win them by working hard.
“I think Danny Jacobs definitely deserves a rematch,” Willie Monroe said to Fighthype about Jacobs deserving a second fight against Golovkin. “I think that would be first, and then the only other person that has a belt besides him is Saunders. He’ll be next in the line. If he doesn’t get it, you’ve got Jermall Charlo. That would be my order – Jacobs, Saunders and that guy Charlo. Golovkin will win that,” Monroe said when asked who wins between GGG and Saunders.
Jacobs needs a solid win over Jermall Charlo to make a strong case for himself to get a rematch with Golovkin, because he’s not looked good in his two fights since then against Luis Arias and Maciek Sulecki. Jacobs’ last two fights weren’t impressive enough performances for him to deserve a rematch against Golovkin. J
Jacobs is now GGG’s WBA mandatory after beating Sulecki, who moved up in weight to fight him last month, but that was such a poor performance. Jacobs needs victory over a quality guy like Charlo to properly a second shot, because right now he’s starting to look like a shot fighter.
Jacobs might get his rematch with Golovkin at some point, possibly in 2019. There are only a small number of middleweights in the division that are worth it for GGG to fight. That would be these guys: Charlo, Jacobs, Billy Joe Saunders, Canelo, Demetrius Andrade, Ryota Murata and Sergiy Derevyancneko.
“The only person that could possibly give him [Golovkin] some problems and beat him is Jacobs or Canelo, if he gets the rematch,” Monroe Jr. said. ”Jermall Charlo hasn’t fought at middleweight that long, and who did he beat at junior middleweight that says, ‘Hey, this guy could give Golovkin some trouble.’ Jacobs beat credible guys. Canelo beat countless credible guys. I’m not saying Jermall Charlo didn’t beat credible guys, but he hasn’t fought anyone that says for you to say, ‘Yeah, this guy could beat Triple G,” Monroe Jr. said.
I disagree with Monroe Jr. about him saying that Canelo has beaten “countless credible guys.” I don’t think he has. Canelo has beaten fighters like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Liam Smith, James Kirkland, Alfredo Angulo, Amir Khan and Shane Mosley. I don’t think those guys were top middleweights. Canelo’s one major win over Erislandy Lara was controversial.
”The thing about Triple G, he’s not what you think he is from the outside,” Monroe Jr. said. ”You see a power puncher and you think, ‘It’s almost David Lemieux.’ With David Lemieux, you know what you’re getting. It’s 1+1 = 2. He’s coming at you, throwing smoke for as long as he can. But Triple G, he’s measured. Triple G isn’t 1+1= 2. He’s an algebra equation, and you don’t realize that until you get in there with him. It’s not just if I do this and do that. You’ve got to be able to switch-up on a dime and be at full force for the entire fight like Daniel Jacobs did. And he has that equalizer in both hands. Triple G, he’s definitely special and a gifted fighter. It’s not what you think it is from the outside. Everyone was saying David Lemieux has power too. It’s one thing to have power, but Triple G can take punches, evade punches and he’s got power. If you got a man that says, ‘I’m willing to take two to land one and he knows that one is a game changer, he don’t really care and he’s got the skills. He’s an Olympian, a silver medalist. You don’ get to that level without being skilled. Power doesn’t get you there. Intellect and fight knowledge gets you there, fight IO. I give Triple G his props, he’s an awesome fighter,” Monroe said.
