As reported previously by Boxing News 24, WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders will be making his next defense against former world title challenger Willie Monroe Jr. (21-2, 6 KOs) on September 16 at the Copper Box Arena in London, England.
Saunders vs. Monroe is still not official though. There was a press release sent out this past week saying Saunders’ next fight would be announced on July 4. That didn’t happen, so we’ll have to wait for the official word. Never the less, Monroe Jr. is the one that is being talked about as Saunders’ opponent.
There’s a lot of boxing fans complaining about Monroe Jr. getting the fight and not the higher rated David Lemieux, who is ranked #2 by the World Boxing Organization. We don’t know if the WBO offered the fight to Lemieux and he turned it down or what. WBO was supposed to have ordered Saunders to fight his mandatory challenger for his next 2 fights. If the WBO is letting Saunders continue to make voluntary defenses, it makes you wonder why.
Lemieux would have to be seen as the favorite in a fight against Saunders. Lemieux might have some problems early on with Saunders’ boxing skills. If the fight made it past the 6th round, Saunders would be in trouble in dealing with Lemieux’s still dangerous power in the second half of the fight. Lemieux as the WBO champion would be a better fight for the winner of the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin to be fighting instead of Saunders.
Monroe might have too much talent for Saunders, who can’t punch and has lousy stamina. Monroe has some tough seasoning already in fights against Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, Gabriel Rosado, John Thompson, Brian Vera and Brandon Adams. Those would all be tough fights for Saunders. I wouldn’t be surprised if Saunders lost to all of them. It’s pretty much a given that Golovkin would be an absolute ghoulish nightmare opponent for the feather-fisted Saunders, but Vera, Rosado and Adams would be very tough as well.
Monroe beat Rosado by a 12 round unanimous decision on September 17 last year on the undercard of the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Liam Smith card at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. There was talk ahead of time that the winner of the Monroe-Rosado fight would get a shot at fighting Canelo. When it was Monroe that ended up winning the fight, he wasn’t given the Canelo fight, which made some boxing fans feel that Golden Boy Promotions was only interested in matching Canelo against Rosado. Monroe might have been perceived as too tricky and difficult for someone like Canelo to deal with.
Here’s what Monroe said when he didn’t get the Canelo fight:
”I don’t think it’s Canelo himself, but it is his team. I know Canelo would fight me. I think it is trainers who fear that they can’t prepare Canelo for my style. If he is a true man, they should stick to their word. The plan was for the winner of that fight to be able to fight Canelo. They thought Rosado would win, and he would just be a guy that would get pounded by Canelo,” said a disappointed Monroe a not getting the fight against Canelo.
Monroe never got that fight against Canelo. Instead, Canelo fought Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in a big money fight on HBO pay-per-view in what many boxing fans saw as a rip off. Chavez Jr. looked like he’d starved himself to make the 164 ½ pound catch-weight, and he ended up getting pounded by Canelo in a one-sided fight.
Monroe would be stepping in as a replacement for the hard hitting Avtandil Khurtsidze, who was recently arrested on racketeering charges.
While isn’t the greatest opponent you could wish for to be challenging the still unbeaten Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs), it’s least a not another fringe contender. Saunders’ last title defense was against near bottom fringe contender Arur Akakov last December, and he almost lost to him. I watched the fight, and I had Akavov edging Saunders. The fight took place at the Lagoon Leisure Centre in Paisley, Scotland. As the visiting fighter to UK, Akavov needed a little more than what he did for him to get the ‘W’ over the crowd favorite Saunders, who looked truly awful.
”A little ways a way,” said Monroe Jr. on his Twitter account in discussing the Saunders fight.
This will be the second time Monroe fights for a world title at middleweight. It might be the last time if Monroe doesn’t take advantage of the opportunity. On May 16, 2015, Monroe was beaten by middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin by a 6th round knockout.
Golovkin knocked Monroe down 3 times in the fight in dropping him twice in round 2 and once in the 6th in a fight at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York. Despite getting pummeled by the stronger and more talented GGG, Monroe gave him problems in in rounds 3 and 4. Monroe was given up as done after being knocked down twice in the 2nd. But he came back hard in the next two rounds to give Golovkin fits with his inside fighting.
Golovkin turned it up a notch in the 5th round when he hurt Monroe with a big right hand. In the 6th, Golovkin put Monroe away with a hard shot to the head. Monroe got back to his feet and told referee Jack Reiss that he didn’t want to continue.
The good news for Monroe is Saunders cannot punch. Saunders is more of a finesse type of fighter, who uses his boxing skills to win his fights rather than his power. Saunders has also been lucky when it’s come to the scoring of his fights. Saunders arguably deserved losses to Artur Akavov and Chris Eubank Jr. Saunders fight against Andy Lee was viewed as a draw in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans.
Lee came back strong after getting knocked down twice in the 3rd round. Two of the judges had Saunders winning 116-113, 116-112. The third scored it 113-113. That score seemed to be the fairest of the three. Lee did a great job of clawing his way back into the fight and dominating the last 6 rounds, along as some of the earlier rounds. Saunders looked tired form the 4th round on.