Gabriel Rosado vs. Willie Monroe results

By Boxing News - 09/17/2016 - Comments

1-rosadomonroe_hoganphotos

By Eric Baldwin: Former middleweight world title challenger Willie Monroe Jr. (21-2, 6 KOs) defeated #10 WBO Gabriel Rosado (23-10, 13 KOs) by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night on HBO pay-per-view at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The final judges’ scores were 118-110, 117-111, and 116-112. Rosado fought at a slow pace, allowing Monroe Jr. to pot shot him all night long.

Monroe showed a nice jab in hitting Rosado all night from the outside. Rosado said before the fight that he was going to attack Monroe and apply pressure on him to get a stoppage. However, Rosado failed to do that tonight. He was waiting too long, and attacking in brief spurts. This enabled Monroe to nail him with pot shots from the outside using his longer reach.

Rosado came alive briefly in the 7th round in taking the fight to Monroe on the inside. It was the perfect round for Rosado. Unfortunately, he didn’t follow the same plan for the remainder of the fight. Starting in the 8th, Rosado went back to fighting at a slow pace, standing and waiting on the outside instead of attacking. I guess that’s why Rosado is a fringe contender and not a top level guy. He fought like he had sense at all. The blueprint had already been created in how to beat Monroe by Golovkin, who attacked Monroe furiously round after round until stopping him in the 6th. Rosado wasn’t willing to fight like that for some reason. I don’t know why. He might as well have packed it in and quit on his stool if he wasn’t going to fight hard the way he needed to.

The victory for Monroe now puts him in a strong position to fight Saul Canelo Alvarez in December or possibly next year in May. Monroe Jr. did not look good tonight. If Canelo is going to be facing him in December or next year, it’s going to be a disappointment more so than his fight tonight against Liam Smith.

Monroe was cut on the side of his left eye in the 9th. Rosado was cut on the back of his head in the 8th. In the 11th, Rosado suffered a swollen left eyebrow after a clash of heads.

Overall, this was a really bad fight between two guys that looked more like journeyman than fringe contenders. It’s really surprising that Golden Boy Promotions had Rosado vs. Monroe as the co-feature for this HBO PPV card, because it was just an awful fight.

Supposedly, Golden Boy was planning on using the winner of tonight’s Rosado vs. Monroe fight as an opponent for Canelo Alvarez in December 2016 or May 2017. I think that’s a really bad idea. There’s a lot better fighters than Monroe in the division that are deserving of a fight against Canelo. Monroe already his chance for a big fight last year in his fight against Golovkin, and he lost badly. Monroe has only fought twice since that fight, and not against a quality opponent. I don’t rate Rosado as a good fighter. I do think he’s a good journeyman.