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There has been so much talk about who is going to take the pound for pound throne after Mayweather’s retirement? Who is going to be the next ‘BIG THING’ in boxing? A lot of names were thrown up from the boxing faithful with names like Canelo Alvarez, Sergey Kovalev, Vasyl Lomachenko, Andre ward and many more but one name was time and time repeated again and that was of the reigning undefeated WBA and IBO middleweight Champion Gennady Golovkin or simply “GGG”. A sparkling amateur career consisting of 345 wins and only 5 losses, Olympic silver medallist,29 knockouts in his 32 matches as a professional boxer which is the highest knock-out percentage in middleweight history at the moment and most of all he has never been knocked down in his career as both an amateur and professional boxer. It’s quite amazing indeed and Golovkin is looking to climb the pound for pound ladder higher when he takes on Southpaw Willie “The Mongoose” Monroe Jr. on Saturday May 16th at the Fabulous Forum in California and it will be for Golovkin’s WBA and IBO middleweight titles.
Monroe Jr. who is having a record of 19 wins and 1 defeat was on a bad patch after his loss to Darnell Boone and looked to be out of the main event list but improved skills have given Monroe Jr. a new lease of life and this was evident in his last match against the tough Brian Vera where he was victorious. Monroe Jr. is no pushover .He comes from a boxing background with both his father and uncle being top pro boxers in their time. Monroe Jr. has the reach and the speed advantage over Golovkin. His ring range is good but he will have to be on top of his game to make the master plan work because Golovkin is the master at studying opponents in the ring and any mistake will be dealt with accurate, vicious shots which can make any professional boxer go to sleep .Monroe Jr. is a southpaw, a breed which Golovkin has faced so little in his career and this can be of an advantage to Monroe Jr.
Golovkin on the other hand, reads most of the opponents in the first round and then he goes to work with his explosive jabs and body work which signals the onslaught. Golovkin though he doesn't look speedy is excellent at cutting off the ring and cornering the opponent. He is excellent at finding range and has great body balance. The major advantage which Golovkin has is his obvious knock out power. Golovkin has stopped 29 of his opponents with his punches which are by far the most vicious in his division. Golovkin throughout the promotion of the match has been talking about his possible upcoming matches and his desire to unify the middleweight belts. So little has been stressed on Monroe Jr. and Golovkin should be careful not to let his concentration drift out while in the ring.
The fight would be mostly one-sided in my opinion as Willie Monroe Jr. is not the toughest opponent Golovkin is facing till date but for “The Mongoose” it is by far his biggest test. Monroe Jr. has good skills but nothing in him stands out and even though the prospect of two different styles in the ring does make it interesting, the difference in fighting credentials are too high to make this even close.
Prediction: Golovkin by KO.
