Former Gennady “GGG” Golovkin knockout victim, Willie Monroe Jr., is predicting that he’ll be stopped in the 9th round b Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) in their fight on September 16. Monroe Jr. says he discovered a weakness in Triple G’s game in fighting him on the inside in their fight two years ago on May 16, 2015, and he believes that the 27-year-old Canelo will be able to take advantage of that by staying in close.
Monroe Jr. was knocked out in the 6th round after he quit on his feet following a knockdown. Monroe got back and looked fine after being dropped by GGG in the 6th, but he chose to let referee Jack Reiss no that he didn’t want to continue. Monroe Jr. has been dubbed a “quitter” by a lot of boxing fans ever since.
Monroe feels confident that his prediction of the Canelo-Golovkin fight will come true, as he accurately predicted the recent Andre “SOG” Ward vs. Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev fight last June in predicting a knockout win for Ward. Monroe Jr. was off by one round in his prediction of the Ward-Kovalev 2 fight, in predicting that Ward would stop Kovalev in the 9th. Ward ended up stopping Kovalev in the 8th, albeit by a controversial TKO after he appeared to hit the Russian fighter with three consecutive low blows. Monroe Jr. didn’t mention the low blows when talking about his prediction of the Ward vs. Kovalev 2 fight. That would have been nice if Monroe Jr. had been able to foresee that ahead of time.
“Obviously, the kind of the middleweight division is Golovkin,” said Monroe Jr. to BoxNation. “I lost to him early on in my career. He’s tough. He’s skillfully awkward. People don’t realize. They look at his power. They don’t realize he’s very skillful, but he’s very awkward also. Any awkward fighter can give any fighter a big test; not to mention we’re talking Triple G, too. He’s a very good fighter, skillfully awkward, and very strong,” said Monroe.
Monroe Jr. is currently 30-years-old. His fight with Golovkin took place just 2 years ago when he was 28. I wouldn’t say the Golovkin-Monroe Jr. fight took place earlier in Monroe’s career. It was only 2 years ago. The fight pretty much took place yesterday. Nothing much has changed. Monroe Jr. has won his last two fights against John Thompson and Gabriel Rosado. Monroe Jr. is the same guy that fought Golovkin in 2015. Contrary to popular opinion, Golovkin is the same guy that fought Monroe Jr. He’s not changed at all. Everything is the same in Golovkin. He hasn’t faded. All you need to do is look at the Golovkin vs. Monroe Jr. fight and compare it to his recent match against Danny Jacobs to know that he’s the same guy. Jacobs was a lot bigger than Golovkin, as well as Monroe Jr.
“Canelo,” said Monroe Jr. when asked who wins the Canelo-Golovkin fight. “It’s funny, right after I fought Golovkin, 15 minutes after I got out of the ring, they said, ‘Who do you think will win out of Canelo and Golovkin,’ and I said, ‘Canelo will win.’ Everyone said, ‘You’re being a sore loser.’ Not being a sore loser. I’m just gout of the ring and I’m getting my faculties together. But when I fought Golovkin, in rounds 3, 4 and 5, where I got my work done at was on the inside. I found out that Golovkin is a midrange fighter. If you’re too far away from him, he’s just going to walk you down and cut off the ring. If you’re too close to him, he can’t get off. If you’re right in his wheelhouse, right in his power, that’s where he’s really dangerous,” said Monroe Jr.
In re-watching the Golovkin vs. Monroe Jr. fight in researching for this article, I think Monroe Jr. completely wrong about Golovkin not being able to “get off” his punches at close range. Golovkin was able to throw big power shots while Monroe Jr. was in close. Golovkin was nailing Monroe Jr. with tremendous shots in rounds 2 through 6 at close range. Golovkin knocked Monroe Jr. with a shot thrown from in close in the 2nd round. In round 6, Golovkin hurt Monroe Jr. with a big uppercut while in close. I think Monroe Jr. needs to re-watch his fight with Golovkin. He’ll realize that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about in analyzing Golovkin’s vulnerability from his fight with him.
Golovkin was hitting Monroe Jr. from in close, and he was also taking a step back to load up on even bigger shots. If you look at Golovkin’s feet, he would take a step back and nail Monroe Jr. It was so easy for Golovkin to do that again and again. If Monroe Jr. thinks Canelo will be able to crowd Golovkin in order to beat him, he’s wrong. Golovkin will take a step back like he did against Monroe Jr. and Martin Murray and tag Canelo. What Monroe Jr. doesn’t realize about Canelo is he’s a mid-range puncher too. Canelo prefers to fight at mid-range. He’s not a great inside fighter like Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. and some of the Mexican greats from years past. Canelo is a guy that does his best work at mid-range. If Canelo tries to smother Golovkin by staying on the inside, it’s not going to work. Golovkin punches very hard on the inside, and like I said, he’ll take a step back and load up on one of his big power shots to hurt Canelo.
It would be a disaster for Canelo to fight Golovkin on the inside. Canelo would be nullifying his own hand speed advantage if he tries to smother Golovkin by staying in close. The only place where Canelo has an advantage of some kind against Golovkin is at mid-range, where he can use his faster hands to land combinations. If Canelo listens to Monroe Jr’s advice about fighting in close, he’s going to render his own hand speed advantage useless. Canelo will find out on his own that he can’t get the better of Golovkin on the inside. Even if Canelo tries to fight on the inside, he’ll give up on that idea after a round or two when he finds out that he’s getting hit too much and he can’t use his hand speed effectively.
“Someone like Canelo, the only style that beats Canelo is legs,” said Monroe Jr. . Nothing else really gives Canelo problems. When I say good fight, I’m not just talking about cutting off the ring like Golovkin does. Canelo is not going to be moving. Canelo wants you to come to him so he can counter, and he’s faster than Golovkin,” said Monroe.
Monroe Jr. is partially right about Canelo having problems with fighters that move a lot. He definitely had problems with Erislandy Lara and Floyd Mayweather Jr’s movement in his fights with them. However, what REALLY gives Canelo problems are fighters that jab frequently, and fighters that throw single pot shots. Canelo has short arms, and he doesn’t arm reach to deal with fighters that jab and avoid his counter left.
Fighters throw single pot shots also give Canelo problems, because he needs guys to throw combinations for him to have a chance to land his counter left hand that he likes to throw. If you look at Canelo’s fights against Mayweather and Lara, those guys were hitting him with single pot shots to the head. Canelo wasn’t able to land his counter left hand against either of those fighters. Lara almost pitched a shutout of Canelo, limiting him to just 31 head shots landed in the entire 12 round fight.
To say that Lara was robbed by the judges in the Canelo fight is putting it lightly. Lara clearly beat Canelo in my opinion. The judges’ scores were terrible. Only one judge got it right in my view, and that was the one that scored it for Lara by the score 115-113. Canelo is helpless against fighters throw jabs and single pot shots. I think those things give Canelo many more problems than movement does. Canelo is a counter puncher like Juan Manuel Marquez.
If you look at the guys that gave Marquez problems, he struggled against fighters that jabbed and threw single pot shots. Mayweather made Marquez look really bad in beating him by a lopsided 12 round decision. If Mayweather hadn’t used his jab and combinations, Marquez would have been able to hit him a lot. Mayweather fought a smart fight in beating Marquez. I think if Golovkin jabs and throws single shots against Canelo, he’ll shut him out and possibly stop him.
“Personally, I think Canelo stops him in 9 or 10,” said Monroe in giving his prediction on the Canelo-Golovkin fight. “I said that about Andre Ward when he fought [Sergey] Kovalev. I said in the second fight that Andre Ward is going to stop him. People said, ‘You’re crazy. I said, ‘Round 9, I think he’ll stop him.’ Andre Ward went in there and did it a round earlier than I predicted,” said a proud looking Monroe Jr.
Just because Monroe Jr. was able to predict the outcome of the Ward vs. Kovalev fight doesn’t mean his prediction of the Canelo-Golovkin fight is going to be accurate. That would be like predicting it’s going to rain 365 days a year just because you were able to predict one day of rain. In listening to Monroe Jr’s analysis of Golovkin’s weaknesses, it’s clear that he doesn’t know what’s he’s talking about in analyzing Triple G. It’s no big deal. Monroe Jr. is trying to remember something that happened 2 years ago. He doesn’t have the benefit of being able to watch the fight and then talk about it, which is what I did. Golovkin was landing some vicious shots on the inside against Monroe. In the 2nd round alone, Golovkin landed a landed a left hand in close that put Monroe Jr. It’s surprising that Monroe Jr. was able to get up from that blow, because it was devastating. That shot was not thrown from mid-range. it was thrown from the inside, and it badly hurt Monroe.
Monroe Jr. will be challenging WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders on September 16 at the Copper Box Arena in London, England. If Monroe Jr. beats Saunders, he’ll have a very good chance of fighting the winner of the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight if they don’t face each other in an immediate rematch. There’s also a change that the World Boxing Organization might order Monroe Jr. to fight the likes of #2 WBO David Lemieux or #6 WBO Danny Jacobs. The smart move for the Canelo-Golovkin winner would be for them to wait for the WBO to order the Saunders-Monroe Jr. winner to face Jacobs or Lemieux first before fighting for the WBO strap. Whoever emerges as the winner of the Saunders vs. Monroe Jr. fight would likely lose to Lemieux or Jacobs. We’d have a much bigger fight for whoever emerges from the Canelo vs. GGG bout to face the likes of Lemieux or Jacobs.