By Dan Ambrose: IBO/WBA and interim WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (32-0, 29 KOs) will be defending his title against the slick southpaw #3 WBA, #5 WBO, #9 WBC Willie Monroe Jr (19-1, 6 KOs) on May 16th at The Forum in Inglewood, California. The Golovkin-Monroe Jr fight will be televised by HBO Championship Boxing. Is it going to be a great fight? Probably not.
Monroe Jr likes to run and hold when facing punchers, and his fights aren’t known for being the most entertaining unless you like watching fighters that run and hold.
There’s no question that Monroe will be looking to move and hold as much as possible when he gets in the ring with Golovkin. This is going to force Golovkin to chase Monroe around the ring, and fight through the constant clinches that American fighter will be initiating round after round.
Golovkin would have been better off fighting sluggers like Tureano Johnson and Jorge Sebastian Heiland. Those guys are much bigger punchers than Monroe Jr, and they would make it interesting for as it lasts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiSE85oeeR4
It’s probable that Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler chose to fight Monroe Jr due to him having won the 2014 ESPN Boxcino tournament. Monroe Jr defeated Brandon Adams, Vitaliy Kopylenko and Donatas Bondorovas. In Monroe Jr’s recent fight, he defeated Brian Vera by a 10 round unanimous decision last January in a fight televised by ESPN.
Like Monroe’s fights in the Boxcino tournament, they were ugly to watch fights with Monroe constantly clinching and moving. It was not pretty. Monroe did prove that he’s better than the journeyman Vera, but that’s no big deal. Vera had already been beaten a number of times by other fighters.
It’s unclear whether Monroe Jr was someone that HBO offered to Golovkin and his management, or if this was someone that they themselves picked. Either way, Monroe Jr seems to have picked due to him having fought on ESPN a lot recently rather than his style being an entertaining one.
If HBO wanted to find someone that would make for an entertaining fight, they should have selected Tureano Johnson or Jorge Sebastian Heiland. Those guys have good punching power, and they don’t run around the ring looking to hold and throw slapping shots like Monroe Jr.
“I’m told it’s a done deal. @GGGBoxing will face @WILLIEMONROEJR on May 16 on HBO boxing at the forum in LA. #boxing #bigdramashow #goodboy,” Dan Rafael said on his twitter.
Golovkin defeated Martin Murray by an 11th round knockout on February 21st in his last fight in Monte Carlo. It was a fight where Golovkin had to chase Murray around the ring and put up with a lot of holding from him. It was not a great fight due to the running and holding that Murray did.
Golovkin will need to really chase Monroe Jr around the ring if he wants to be able to land his shots, because he’s definitely going to be doing a lot of running. When Golovkin does get in range, you can expect for Monroe to immediately clinch him to keep him from getting his shots off, because that’s what Monroe likes to do a lot.
Monroe, 5’10”, will have a four inch reach advantage over Golovkin in addition to a hand speed advantage. Golovkin is going to need to take a lot of slapping shots in order to get his own punches in.
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