Billy Joe Saunders vs. Willie Monroe Jr. – Results

Billy Joe Saunders vs. Willie Monroe Jr. – Results

Billy Joe Saunders vs. Willie Monroe Jr. – Results

Billy Joe Saunders vs. Willie Monroe Jr. – Results

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WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (25-0, 12 KOs) did enough to beat #5 WBO challenger Willie Monroe Jr. (21-3, 6 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Copper Box Arena in London, England. This was a really boring fight to say the least. I’m being kind here.

It was like watching paint dry in the afternoon sun. Saunders and Monroe Jr. fought poorly, and neither of them looked like a world class fighter. This was the 2nd time Monroe Jr. has fought for a world title since 2015. After the non-effort from Monroe tonight, I doubt that he’ll be getting another world title shot anytime soon. The only reason Monroe Jr. got the title shot was because David Lemieux was dealing with injuries from his previous fight.

If Lemieux had been healthy enough to take the fight, we’d have seen him facing Saunders tonight instead of Monroe Jr. You can argue that Lemieux would have knocked Saunders out cold inside 4 rounds tonight. Saunders looked like he was ready to be beaten if he’d been fighting someone good that was ready to take the fight to him.

Saunders started well in rounds 1 and 2 in taking the fight to Monroe Jr. and dominating both of the rounds. Monroe Jr. wouldn’t let his hands go, which was the story of the fight unfortunately.

In round 3, Saunders came on strong in the last seconds of the round to land some chopping shots to the head of Monroe Jr. after he made the mistake of backing up against the ropes.

The southpaw Monroe landed some nice jabs and lefts to the head of Saunders to get the better of him in round 4.

In the 5th, Saunders trapped Monroe Jr. against the ropes and hit him with a textbook left elbow smash to the face. The referee didn’t penalize Saunders for the foul. Monroe took the shot without suffering a cut, which was surprising.

Monroe fought well in the 6th round in landing some powerful jabs to the head of Saunders. This was a one-sided round, as Saunders looked like he was taking a rest break. If not for that, he would have won this round too, as Monroe was unwilling to do anything other than throw single jabs.

Round 7 was close until a late surge from Saunders to take the round. Saunders caught Monroe Jr. with a nice left hand to the head late in the round that got the boxing fans exited. Saunders then nailed Monroe with a 4-punch combination to the head. Monroe made it easy for Saunders by fighting with his back against the ropes. This is the same mistake that Monroe Jr. made in his fight with Golovkin.

You would think that Monroe would have learned his lesson after all this time to stay off the ropes.

Saunders controlled the 8th and 9th rounds with late surges to take the rounds. Monroe was fighting like he had no ambition, so it was easy for Saunders to come on in the last seconds to steal the rounds with just a handful of punches.

Saunders didn’t even need to fight hard, because Monroe was only throwing jabs. It was a very odd way of fighting for a world title. Challengers are usually taught to unload on champions with power shots. You don’t see too many challengers throwing nothing but jabs like Monroe Jr. was doing tonight.

The crowd booed at times. I was kind of surprised by that, because this is Saunders’ home turf. You’d think the boxing fans would be a little lenient with him when it comes to the booing, but they didn’t care. They wanted to see some action, but Saunders was fighting like he was afraid of his own shadow. Saunders didn’t want to let his hands go, and Monroe was even worse. The fight came down to the guy that stunk the least winning. They both were terrible, but Saunders was a little bit less terrible.

After the fight, Saunders started yapping about wanting to fight Gennady Golovkin or Saul Canelo Alvarez in December. I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were Saunders. That’s not likely to happen.

Saunders, 28, suffered a cut over his right eye in round 4 from a clash of heads. The head clash appeared to be initiated by Saunders, as he was frequently powering his head and charging Monroe Jr. when he would get near the ropes.

The scores were 117-111, 115-114, and 117-112. Saunders clearly deserved the win. Boxing News 24 scored the fight 117-112. Monroe Jr. didn’t fight with any passion whatsoever. He looked like a completely different fighter from the guy that beat Gabriel Rosado and John Thompson. Monroe Jr. wasn’t even as good as he was in his loss to Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in 2015.

After doing nothing for the first 10 rounds, the 30-year-old Monroe Jr. came alive in round 11 and 12, and did a decent job of jabbing and nailing Saunders with single pot shots. Monroe looked like a different fighter in those rounds. You could tell from his sense of urgency and the way that he was letting his hands go, he was finally motivated and ready to give Saunders problems. Unfortunately for Monroe, he waited too long before making his comeback. The time for Monroe to start showing some urgency was in the 5th round, not the 11th. By that point in the fight, Monroe Jr. needed a knockout to win, and he didn’t have nearly enough power to get the job done.

Monroe Jr. brawled with Golovkin, Thompson and Rosado. Tonight, all Monroe Jr. waned to do was stand on the outside, waiting and waiting for ages until he would throw a single jab to the head of Saunders. This is a new fighting style by Monroe Jr. that he learned from somebody. The style doesn’t work for Monroe at all. He needed to adapt early on when he fell behind in the first 4 rounds, but his corner wasn’t riding him enough with instructions and motivation. His trainer acted like he was content with what Monroe Jr. was doing. It was surprising because Monroe was so poor. He gave most of the rounds away by fighting passively and just looking to land an odd jab here and there.

Saunders looked really weak and tired after just 5 rounds. I mean, Saunders appeared weak and weight drained from the very start of the fight, but he was able to get away with being in that state due to Monroe Jr. standing like a statue for most of each round, waiting forever before throwing a single jab. Against a good middleweight, Saunders would have blasted out of there. Had Saunders been fighting the likes Gennady Golovkin, Sergiy Derevyanchenko or Danny Jacobs tonight, he would have been in bad shape.

Saunders got away with a lot of fouls. Besides the head-butts that I mentioned earlier, Saunders was throwing rabbit punches to the back of Monroe’s head, hitting on the break, using headlocks and nailing him with forearms. He was also pushing him down when the two of them were in a clinch. At times, it looked like it was an anything goes type of fight with the way Saunders was fighting.

”I come down from a lot of weight,” said Saunders after the fight. ”It was wait, wait, wait, he had me waiting. I was glad to get through this, because I can wait for Golovkin or Canelo. In round 4, I couldn’t see because I had blood in my eyes. If I came come back after 9 months out, and boxing like this. It wasn’t an entertaining fight for the fans. It was boxing. I got the win. Hopefully if Golovkin wins, it could be a good fight in December.”

In other boxing results on the card, unbeaten #8 WBO 175 lb. contender Anthony Yarde (13-0, 12 KOs) defeated Norbert Nemesapati (25-7, 18 KOs) by a 3rd round stoppage. It wasn’t much of a fight. Yarde needs to be fighting better opposition than this already. Yarde seems like a decent fighter, but he’s got his work cut out for him if he ever wants to compete against the best at 175. There are a lot of great fighters at light heavyweight that would have likely mopped the deck with Yarde tonight. I’m talking guys like Artur Beterbiev, Sullivan Barrera, Dmitry Bivol, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Sergey Kovalev, and Adonis Stevenson. Those fighters are on another level than Yarde. I’d like to see Yarde progress against a higher class of opponent so he can improve instead of staying the same. If Yarde ever wants to be able to compete against the best at light heavyweight, then he needs to fight better fighters than Nemesapati.