By Jim Dower: In watching last Saturday night’s clash between challenger Willie Monroe Jr. (19-2, 6 KOs) and IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs), the 28-year-old Monroe looked like he was intentionally trying to get counted out in the 6th round after he was knocked down by a series of hard head shots from Golovkin. By getting up just as the referee was counting to 10, it appeared that Monroe was trying to muddy the water by putting it on the referee to count him out in a controversial fashion rather than him quitting or getting counted out on the canvas.
Instead of getting up immediately from the knockdown, Monroe waited until the count of 9 before rising to his feet. The referee Jack Reiss counted to ten just as Monroe made it to his feet.
It’s unclear if Monroe was hoping for a controversial stoppage by getting up so slowly, or if he was mentally out of it. But whatever the case after Reiss asked Monroe if he wanted to continue, Monroe put his eyes down and backed up like he was hurt. He looked like he mentally had quit even before that, but with the way he backed off, it looked like he was mentally finished. Reiss then stepped forward and asked him again if he wanted to continue. At that point, Monroe told him that he wanted the fight stopped.
“You just beat it. You just beat it,” Reiss said to Monroe after he sprang up at the count of 10. “You’ve got to move faster. Do you want to continue? Do you want to continue?” At that point Monroe said “I’m done.” Weiss then stopped the fight at 0:35 of the 6th round.
It was kind of a letdown to see Monroe go out in that fashion because he’d made it seem in the build up to the fight that he’d be willing to do anything to beat Golovkin and get the win. For a fighter that is willing to do anything that it takes to get the victory, they’re going to try and clinch to ride out the round so that they can recover from the knockdown. They’re not going to get up at the count of 9 and rise at when the referee says 10. They’re certainly not going to quit when the referee asks them “Do you want to continue?” It could be that Monroe underestimated how good Golovkin would be, and how hard he punched. After all, Monroe was perhaps drunk on his success in ESPN’s Boxcino tournament in winning the tournament against largely fringe level middleweight contenders.
Monroe’s recent victory over high level journeyman Brian Vera last January may have further increased his self-confidence to unhealthy levels. A fighter has to know their limitations. That’s why it might not have been a good thing for Monroe to win the Boxcino tournament and to face guys like Vera, because it could have given him a warped perception of his own talent level. That’s why you would like to have seen Monroe face a step up opponent before fighting a talented guy like Golovkin. If Monroe had to fight someone like Tureano Johnson, Curtis Stevens, Hassan N’Dam and David Lemieux before he got the Golovkin fight, it would have very likely given Monroe a more realistic view of his real talent level. That way he could have fought a better fight by being more careful.
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