Michael Montero – In tonight’s HBO Championship Boxing main event, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin put his middleweight titles on the line against the southpaw challenger Willie Monroe Jr. Over 12,000 fans packed The Forum in Inglewood, California to see the Kazakhstan native, now residing in Los Angles, who has become one of the most beloved fighters in all of boxing. Before the end of the night, the fans would have their money’s worth.
In the opening round Monroe fought mainly to survive, but he was making mistakes. Golovkin saw that Monroe was bringing his right hand back very low after throwing his southpaw jab, and in the second round he landed a monstrous left hook right on the button that sent the challenger to the canvas. Monroe got up and fought back, but GGG landed a sweeping right hang that dropped him again. The Rochester, New York native once more rose to his feet and survived the round, but it appeared things could be over early.
Monroe fought much better in the third, utilizing lateral movement and intelligent counterpunching. It appeared the Golovkin was taking the round off, if not letting his opponent off the hook. They fought in the center of the ring in the fourth; about halfway through Monroe landed a nice combination that snapped Govlovkin’s head back. GGG motioned to say “bring it on” and the crowd went nuts. It was more of the same in the fifth round as Monroe continued to land punches during exchanges; they had little effect but it was making the fight interesting. Golovkin’s face was getting marked up, but it was obvious that he was not at all concerned with Monroe’s power.
Gennady came out in the sixth with a renewed vigor. Suddenly he was working behind his jab again and pushing forward, rather than standing in the center of the ring as he had in the previous two rounds. Midway through he landed two hard uppercuts and a roundhouse right to the top of the Monroe’s head that put him down. Referee Jack Reiss reached the count of nine before Monroe popped up. When he asked the fighter if he wanted to continue Monroe simply replied, “I’m done”, giving Reiss no other choice but to waive the fight off. Golovkin improves to 33-0 (30KO) while Monroe falls to 19-2 (6KO).
In the post-fight interview with HBO’s Max Kellerman, Golovkin said that although he had his opponent down early and could have got him out of there, he let him back into the fight to provide more drama for the fans. Imagine that, a top-level prize fighter willing to mix it up with an opponent and eat leather to ensure boxing fans would get their money’s worth. Unlike some other boxing superstars, it’s not all about the “money” with the middleweight champion. When asked about who he would like next, GGG called out Miguel Cotto and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. This writer believes a Cotto-Canelo match is more likely to happen first, with the winner of that fight to face Golovkin down the line. However it plays out, any combination of those three fighters will have diehard boxing fans buzzing for sure.
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