On May 16th, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin will be back to being the spotlight of boxing as he squares off against Willie “The Mongoose” Monroe Jr. live from The Forum in Inglewood, California. This past Saturday, Golovkin’s team, which included his trainer Abel Sanchez and his Promotor Tom Loeffler, had an event to not only promote the fight, but to give the media a chance to asks Golovkin and his team a couple questions about this event and what could be on the horizon for GGG.
The main question was regarding why Willie Monroe Jr? Tom Loeffler started off by saying, “Why Willie Monroe? Well 1st, Miguel Cotto wouldn’t accept the challenge. Gennady is his mandatory from the WBC. Part of the agreement was that Cotto would get one voluntary defense before he had to fight Gennady. That fight was supposed to be against Canelo and that fight never happened. The WBC will still give him one voluntary defense and it looks like that will be against Daniel Geale, who Gennady fought last year here, so Willie Monroe made the most sense. He’s fought on ESPN 4 times in the last year; he won the Boxcino Tournament, and he’s from Upstate NY.”
Loeffler continued to say, “Gennady want to test himself. He hasn’t faced a southpaw since his HBO debut against Proska from Poland. Willie has an unconventional style. When I called his promoter Artie Pelullo, he was surprised that I called him for a fight. Gennady wanted a southpaw specifically, Abel was on board, and he wants to perfect his style against all different styles.” Tom also said that Golovkin is willing to go down to 154 to fight Mayweather but barring that he will likely stay at 160 or above.
Abel Sanchez then spoke about who would be the biggest challenge for Golovkin. He mentioned Cotto because he is the current 160 pound WBC Champions and also mentioned whoever wins the upcoming matchup between David Lemieux and N’Dam N’jikam. He did make sure that their main target is Cotto unless he drops the belt. When asked about Chavez Jr, Sanchez said he thinks due to the loss, he’s now on the backburner for the time being, but Froch in England would be a good ideal fit.
Loeffler added more regarding the Cotto situation stating, “The WBC will sanction the fight against Geale, but they won’t sanction the fight against Canelo without our approval because it’s clear that Gennady is the next mandatory challenger after his one voluntary defense. We’ve been approached by Roc Nation to try to work something out with Cotto. So we have to just see what can be worked out. Either 1st, the winner of that fight would have to guarantee to fight him which they have yet to do or 2nd, there would have to be some significant financial compensation to Gennady.”
Regarding a fight with Andre Ward, Loeffler replied, “They have approached us regarding Ward, but they made it clear that they wanted to have a couple comeback fights 1st. It would be great for Andre to get back in the ring. He’s been off for a while. He’s had some promotional issues, but if Roc Nation can get him back, then it becomes a big fight, no reason not to fight. Right now Andre doesn’t bring in the same amount of money that Gennady brings right now so if he gets back in the swing of things; there is no reason not to make that fight.”
It seems like Golovkin is still hungry to get one of the big fights that seems to be inches away from him. He possibly could be breaking through in the fall, but it seems like more likely he’ll have to wait till next year. The fight against Willie Monroe Jr will just add to the mental experience that Golovkin has had with his total of almost 400 fights between amateurs and pros. Eventually, he will get that big PPV fight, and when it finally does happen, the man from Kazakhstan will have his chance to shine. It will be a moment we all won’t want to miss.
