By Dan Ambrose: Challenger Willie Monroe Jr. (19-1, 6 KOs) is in a situation where he literally has nothing to lose in his upcoming fight against IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (32-0, 29 KOs) on Saturday night. Golovkin’s trainer feels that Monroe is such a big underdog that there is no resulting pressure on him because everyone pretty much expects him to come up the loser in this fight at the Forum in Inglewood, California.

“According to the current odds, pretty darn big,” Sanchez said via RingTV.com. “In the region of 15 or 20 to 1, the odds-makers say.”

20-1 odds are horrible. That tells you that almost no one feels that Monroe is going to win this fight. In looking at his last fight against Brian Vera, it’s not surprising that few fans are giving Monroe a shot at winning this fight because Monroe was mostly moving and landing pot shots in that fight. He showed no inclination to stand and trade with Vera for any length of time, and the fight was frankly boring to watch because of all that movement that he was doing.

Monroe ended up getting a 10 round decision, but that largely seemed to be the result of Vera gassing out in the second half of the fight. Had Vera continued to fight hard like he had in the first 4 rounds, he likely would have gotten the victory.

“Of course, he has a great opportunity to realize all his dreams, he understands he has nothing to lose,” Sanchez said.

Having nothing to lose will definitely help Monroe, as long as he’s willing to focus on his offense enough for him to impress the judges. Believe me, if Monroe runs around the ring all night long like he did against Vera, he’s going to lose the fight big time.

The judges aren’t going to give Monroe rounds if all he’s doing is moving and pot shotting. That approach works against a limited fighter like Vera, but it won’t work against a fighter like Golovkin, who will be unloading on Monroe at every chance he can get in the fight.

Monroe did a lot of clinching against Vera in their fight last January, and that played a big part in Vera not being able to get his shots off. Instead of fighting through the clinches, Vera reacted passively, and waited until the referee broke them apart each time. Golovkin is smarter than that.

He’s going to resist the clinching at all costs, and he’s going to be nailing Monroe hard each time he tries that trick. It’s going to be up to Monroe whether he wants to risk clinching because he’s going to be getting hit with point blank shots from Golovkin. If Monroe doesn’t figure out early that it doesn’t pay to hold, he could wind up getting knocked out at close range on Saturday.