This weekend “The Big Drama Show” returns to the ring as K2 Promotions and Banner Promotions will be presenting a couple of championship bouts live from Inglewood, California. Gennady “GGG” Golovkin will be putting his WBA Middleweight, and WBC Interim Middleweight belts on the line against Willie “The Mongoose” Monroe Jr.
Also on that card will be one of the best pound for pound fighters you never heard of, Yet. Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez will be defending his WBC Flyweight title against Edgar Sosa, and it will all be seen on HBO Boxing.
Gennady Golovkin is the #1 middleweight fighter in the world, and by most accounts, the biggest boxing star on HBO. He is 32-0 with 29 KOs and seems to be one of the most avoided fighters in the sport. Despite crying out for fights against other boxers like Miguel Cotto, Carl Froch, Canelo Alvarez, and previously Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and Andre Ward.
It seems like no one wants to get in the ring with the man named GGG. The detractors would say that Golovkin has only fought at best B level fighters, but what is he to do if the A level fighters don’t want to step into the ring with him?
So as of now, the 33-year-old Golovkin continues to dominate whoever does step into the ring with him until one of the other bigger names step up. He is currently the mandatory for Miguel Cotto’s WBC Middleweight belt. A Fight that doesn’t seem possible with all things pointing to a Cotto-Alvarez matchup for the end of the year. It looks like either Cotto will have to drop the belt or cough up some step aside money for Golovkin. It looks like the 1st possible big matchup for him will be 1st half of 2016.
Willie Monroe Jr is a 28-year-old solid southpaw fighter that moves very well in the ring. He will be stepping into the ring with a record of 19-1 with 6 KOs. Being a slick southpaw is one of the reasons that Golovkin wanted to face Monroe Jr. Golovkin hasn’t faced a south paw since his debut on HBO against Grzegorz Proska, which was also his debut fight in the US. Monroe Jr won ESPN’s Boxcino Middleweight Tournament with wins over then undefeated Vitaliy Kopylenko in the semis and then undefeated Brandon Adams in the finals. His biggest win was his last fight against veteran Brian Vera.
Golovkin is hoping to run through another opponent without taking too much damage or wearing himself out too much as he hopes to come back to the ring in 3 months. Monroe Jr is hoping to pull off the upset of the year by beating the boogeyman of the division. When it’s all said and done, Monroe Jr may be able to avoid a lot of punches, but he doesn’t have the pop to hurt GGG. Golovkin normally is very good at cutting off the ring. Eventually, I think Golovkin gets to him and finishes him by TKO in an 8th round stoppage.
Roman Gonzalez is one of the best and exciting boxers in the sport. Unfortunately, he likely has never been seen or heard of by the mainstream or casual fan. The man known as Chocolatito, born in Nicaragua, is still only 27 years old and holds a record of 42-0 with 36 KOs. One of the few fights where his opponent lasted the entire fight was against the 2nd best in the division, Juan Francisco Estrada, which was three years ago when he won the WBA Light Flyweight belt. His 2nd toughest opponent was when he beat Akira Yaegashi to win the WBC World Flyweight title last September.
Despite his record being 51-8 with 30 KOs, Edgar Sosa is a 35-year-old from Mexico that is a legitimate top 10 Flyweight. Before Yaegashi lost to Gonzalez, he beat Sosa at the end of 2013. Besides another loss to Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, who had a record of 82-3-1 at the time, Sosa has not lost since 2009. His best win was against Giovani Segura, who was ranked in the top 3 of the division before his loss to Juan Francisco Estrada last September. This is a division that isn’t looked at too much, but the best people are not afraid to get in the ring, and there is not a lack of action.
Everyone would love to see a rematch between Gonzalez and Estrada, but as the two of them get more known, more money is involved, and that is the ultimate separator of top fights getting made. Sosa is not a person who gets stopped too much so that will be a slight challenge for Chocolatito. Even though Sosa has the longer reach, I don’t think he will be able to hold off the relentless style of Chocolatito. There is a chance he doesn’t go down, but I think the fight is stopped by the 6th round in favor of Chocolatito.
There has been a lot of criticism of the Floyd Mayweather – Manny Pacquiao fight because of the lack of action. That was flipped when everyone saw Canelo Alvarez put James Kirkland to sleep last week. I think this week will continue with that trend with two guys that are KO artists and know how to finish their opponents in GGG and Chocolatito. With the two having a combined record of 74-0 with 65 stoppages, these are not the type of fights to take a bathroom breaking during.
Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez may not be household names to the casual fans of the sport yet, but if you want to get those fans more into the sport. This is the weekend to do it. When Mayweather and Pacquiao retire someone has to take the thrown for the best pound for pound boxer in the sport and these two are definitely going to be in contention to take the crown. So sit back, tell your friends to tune in, and enjoy the fights.