Many fans were left pleasantly surprised by 2014 Boxcino tournament winner Willie Monroe Jr in his fight with Gennady Golovkin recently, in which the spirited American was simply outgunned by the brute strength and power of the Kazakh who broke him down and floored him 3 times en route to earning a 6th round stoppage – one which was no doubt hastened by Monroe appearing to say “I’m done” to referee Jack Reiss after rising to his feet.
In spite of that, not many fans gave the light hitting New Yorker a prayer going into the fight, yet he was consistently able to tag Golovkin as the champion moved forward, all the while displaying some slick footwork, decent handspeed and a pure boxing southpaw style that for me, showed he at least has the ability to hang with most of the top 10 at 160lb.
Golovkin is simply a different kind of animal.
Speaking to fighthype.com following time to assess his performance as well as digest his 2nd professional loss, Monroe was extremely realistic and honest.
Displaying a refreshing attitude, he conceded he will have to fight his way back into contention if he were to be considered for a 2nd Golovkin fight and was positive about assessing what aspects of his game may need to change.
He said;
“I think the one thing it allowed me to do was – now I’m gonna fight with a little more urgency and a little bit more malice ’cause through my career – I mean I been boxing since I was 6, I come from a fighting family and have that Afro-Cuban blood in me and if you know about Cuban boxing, we lives it.”
“I have a lot of physical gifts, I train hard – you know, extra hard – so, my victories so far have just come from being able to out sklill guys, outsmart guys and just being in tremendous condition to last long.”
“I would love a rematch (with Golovkin) but I’d have to beat a couple of names to get back to that level – you know what I mean? That’s something I respect – that’s fighting. Boxing is like how Paulie Malignaggi said – it’s the sport of what have you done for me lately?’ So I’ll have to beat a couple of the top rated middleweights before they would even consider me.”
“Boxing is a business. You have to conduct yoyrself in a business manner and accept what’s best for you.”
Asked when he will be out next, Monroe said;
“HBO said they wanted me back in Septeember/October so we’ll see. Could be one thing one day and then another thing on another day so? But (I’ll fight) whoever’s at 160 who wants to fight Willie Monroe.”
Twitter @Undilutedpoison
