WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs) says he’s ready to fight the best in the 160 lb. division after he makes a title defense against Willie Monroe Jr. (21-2, 6 KOs) on September 16 at the Copper Box Arena in London, England.
Monroe, 30, is in the position of being a spoiler to prevent Saunders from getting what many see as a cash out fight against the winner of the September 16 fight between IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. If Monroe beat Saunders, he can forget all about fighting the Canelo-GGG winner. The only thing that holds interest for Saunders is his WBO 160 lb. title. Once that WBO strap is gone, Saunders becomes just another one of the many weak-punching contenders in the division.
Monroe Jr. can put himself in position to get the winner of the Canelo-Golovkin fight. That would be a big payday for Monroe Jr. It would be the second consecutive big upset that he’s pulled off. Monroe Jr. wasn’t supposed to beat Rosado last year in September on the undercard of the Liam Smith vs. Saul Canelo Alvarez fight card at the AT&T Center in Arlington, Texas. Monroe Jr. wore Rosado down with nonstop attacks, blistering combination punching. If Monroe Jr. does the same thing against Saunders on September 16, he’ll win that fight.
The only thing that could stop Monroe, besides the judging, is ring rust. Monroe Jr. hasn’t fought in a year, and he might not be at the same level he was at for the Rosado fight. If Monroe can get back to the same level he was at for the Rosado fight, Saunders will in a world of hurt.
Saunders says he’s interested in fighting the likes of Danny Jacobs, David Lemieux, Golovkin and Canelo. It’s hard to believe that Saunders is serious in including Lemieux and Jacobs’ names as potential opponents after the Monroe Jr. fight. It goes without saying that Saunders wants the winner of the Canelo-Golovkin fight, because there’s so much money in facing one of them. It’s a great fight for Saunders. He’d get a ton of money fighting either of them, and he might even be able to retire if he chose to.
Saunders says he’d fight Jacobs in December. Saunders might have to if the WBO sticks to their request that Saunders fight back to back mandatory challengers. Monroe Jr. obviously counts as a mandatory defense for Saunders despite him being rated No. 5 with the WBO. If the guys ranked ahead of Jacobs, Rob Brant, Lemieux and Ryota Murata, opt not to fight Saunders, then Jacobs would be the guy to fight Saunders. A fight between Jacobs and Saunders would end badly for Saunders in my opinion I think it would be an easy knockout win for Jacobs.
“I’m willing to fight them,” Saunders told ATG Radio. “There’s me, there’s Danny Jacobs, there’s the Canadian David Lemieux, Golovkin and there’s Canelo. I was willing to fight David Lemieux, but then he said to my team he wasn’t ready as he was carrying an injury. He passed up on that opportunity for a reason; he knows he won’t beat me.”
Lemieux had a shoulder injury that kept him from fighting Saunders. Lemieux got the injury in his fight against Marcos Reyes. It’s too bad though, because Lemieux would have been heavily favored to knockout Saunders if that fight had taken place.
Saunders will need to fight another mandatory challenger after his fight with Monroe Jr. if he gets past him. That’s a big if. There are a lot of boxing fans that see Saunders losing to Monroe Jr. Personally, I don’t know if he can beat Saunders. I mean, I think Monroe Jr. will dominate Saunders and fight well enough to deserve a victory, but I don’t see the judges giving him the win. The fight is taking place in Saunders’ home country of England.
That’s going to make it tough on Monroe to win the fight unless he knocks Saunders out. Unfortunately for Monroe, he doesn’t possess knockout power. He’s more of a light puncher, who wins his fights by decision instead of by knockouts. That puts Monroe in a position where he will need to find some untapped punching power for him to get a knockout. The last time Monroe Jr. knocked out anyone was in sipping the late Michael Walker in the 1st round on July 27, 2013. That was 4 years ago.
It might as well have been a lifetime ago. Monroe hasn’t been knocking out quality opponents, and those are the ones that count. Saunders is a fringe quality guy in my opinion. He’s technically the WBO champion, but only because he beat a very flawed fighter in Andy Lee. We’re talking about the same Andy Lee that Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. knocked out in 2012. That should tell you all you need to know about Lee. Saunders didn’t have to beat anyone good to win the WBO title, and he’s nothing since he won the belt other than defend it once against fringe contender Artur Akavov.
Saunders, 28, has consistently talked about wanting to fight the likes of Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, but he’s failed to face either of them. Golovkin tried to get a fight against Saunders but with no luck. Saunders has fought only 1 time in the last 2 years since winning the WBO middleweight title in beating Andy Lee on December 19, 2015. Saunders was out of the ring for exactly 1 year before he finally defended his WBO title in beating Russian fringe contender by a controversial 12 round unanimous decision last year on December 3 at the Lagoon Leisure Centre in Paisley, Scotland. The judges scored the fight 116-113, 116-112 and 115-113 for Saunders. Boxing News 24 had Akavov winning by a 7 rounds to 5 score.
Saunders appeared to lose the first 6 rounds of the fight before he came on an edged most of the last 6 rounds. When I say ‘edge,’ I mean it. Those were all close rounds that could have gone the other way. It’s nice that Saunders, the home fighter, was given the close rounds, but I saw him losing the fight. Some boxing fans feel that the only reason Saunders returned after 1 year to fight fringe contender Akavov was to keep from being stripped of his title by the World Boxing Organization for inactivity. It’s hard to argue with that belief. I don’t know what the hang up is with Saunders. He was in such a big hurry to win the WBO title, but once he got his hands on it, he’s been resting on his laurels, not fighting and talking a lot trash about guys like Golovkin.
Saunders has now been out of the ring for 8 months. It’ll be 9 months out of action by the time Saunders he fights on September 16 against Monroe Jr.
Saunders says he would be interested in fighting former WBA middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs. It’s unclear how serious Saunders is though, because Jacobs has already gotten excited at the prospects of fighting Saunders, and yet the fight still hasn’t been made. That tells me that Saunders is just flapping his gums about being interested in fighting Jacobs. I don’t think he’s legitimately interested in that fight.
“Listen, Danny Jacobs had a good fight with Golovkin. He didn’t win, they need to forget that, he got beaten,” said Saunders. “He keeps saying he’s the most avoided fighter – I’d be happy to do that in December. If they want to do that in December, I’ll beat Willie Monroe in September then I’ll jump at the chance to fight Danny Jacobs in London, England. Or I’ll go to America.”
I’d have to give Saunders huge credit if he takes the fight with Jacobs in December. It would be a really big risk on Saunders’ part in fighting the hard hitting and highly talented Jacobs. But if Saunders were able to beat the “Miracle Man’ Jacobs, it would make a fight between him and the Canelo-GGG winner much bigger and earn him more money. It’s still a big risk for Saunders to fight a big puncher like Jacobs. Just based on how awful Saunders looked in his last fight against Akavov last December, I wouldn’t give him any chance whatsoever in beating Jacobs. That’s not a winnable fight for the version of Saunders that I saw against Akavov. Saunders has struggled with stamina problems in his fights against Andy Lee and Chris Eubank Jr. He won both of those fights, but he gassed out after 6 rounds. With Saunders fighting just once in the last 2 years, I can’t see his stamina improving. Even if Saunders is in excellent shape for a fight against Jacobs, I think he’ll still gas out after 5 to 6 rounds like he did against Eubank Jr. and Lee.
Saunders needs to put his focus on getting past Monroe Jr. on September 16 before he starts dreaming of fighting the likes of GGG, Canelo, Jacobs or Lemieux. Those are guys that Saunders can’t afford to think about too much right now for fear of him taking his eyes off a very hard to deal with foe in Monroe Jr.
These are the best wins of Monroe’s career:
– Gabriel Rosado
– John Thompson
– Brian Vera
– Brandon Adams
– Vitali Kopylenko
– Donatas Bondorovas
Those are respective wins for Monroe Jr. Rosado arguably just beat Martin Murray recently in his last fight on April 22 in Liverpool, England. Murray was given a 12 round majority decision win, but Rosado fought well enough to deserve a victory. I had Rosado beating Murray. Monroe Jr. EASILY beat Rosado by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision last year on September 17. The scores were 118-119, 117-111 and 116-112. Rosado would give Saunders all he could handle. I don’t know if he could beat Saunders, but I do think he would wear him down and give him problems, especially in the second half of the fight when Saunders usually tires.
Monroe’s only defeats of his 9-year pro career came against journeyman Darnell Boone in losing an 8 round split decision on March 29, 2011 and Gennady Golovkin in getting stopped in the 6th round on May 16, 2015. Monroe Jr. gave Golovkin all he could handle in that fight before getting knocked down and stopped in round 6.
“My dream since I was a kid is to come to America and fight for World Titles, and I’m willing to fulfill those dreams,” said Saunders to boxnation.com.
Saunders is training with former IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook in Spain in getting ready for the Monroe Jr. fight on September 16.
It’s going to be interesting to see what Saunders’ trainer Dominic Ingle can do with him. Brook, who also trained by Ingle, has come up empty in getting stopped in his last 2 fights against Golovkin and Errol Spence Jr. Ingle seems to be pretty handy with the towel in throwing it in the ring, but I don’t know if he’s going to be able to help Saunders get past a talent like Monroe Jr.
Ingle would have to be a miracle worker to Saunders get past the likes of Canelo, Golovkin, Lemieux or Jacobs. I don’t care how good of a trainer Ingle is, Saunders is going to be up against it when he eventually fights those guys if he gets past Monroe Jr. I don’t know what kind of advice Brook can give to Saunders to help him beat Monroe Jr. Brook has arguably quit in his last 2 fights.
This will be Saunders’ second title defense of his WBO title. I hope for Saunders’ sake that the outcome of the Monroe Jr. fight is a lot more conclusive than his first title defense against Akavov. That was just terrible performance by Saunders, and the scoring was even worse than how he fought.