At yesterday’s East London press conference, Billy Joe Saunders made much of Willie Monroe Jr’s 6 round capitulation vs Gennady Golovkin in a previous world title bid 2 years ago.
“As soon as you fought someone with a real pulse, you QUIT,” taunted the defending WBO World middleweight champion from across the dais in the sumptuous new BT Sports Hub.
While fighters will always be prone to making hyperbolic and ultimately disingenuous remarks at such affairs, it was the American challenger’s response that perhaps revealed a psyche unprepared to run through hell in a gasoline sports coat in pursuit of glory.
“I like to think of myself as a smart individual.” explained the soft spoken up state New Yorker.
“A lot of these guys want to put on this purple badge to prove they have a heart and can fight. Then 20 years after their career is over they have no money and can’t talk. I have beautiful kids and a stunning wife. I want to be able to look at my wife and say, ‘Babe, you’re still as beautiful as you were 30 years ago'”.
From a human and intellectual point of view, Monroe’s logic is perfectly laudable. But in the dysfunctional world of the prizefighter, it is borderline anathema. Profesional boxers are not ordinary men and if the great champions of lore had one thing in common, it was an abject inability to calculate their own limits. It’s hard to imagine Joe Frazier or Arturo Gatti having too much identification with Willie’s otherwise understandable credo for self-preservation.
Billy Joe also has a wife and children that he reveres but his fistic priorities are clear nonetheless:
“It’s about WINNING. It’s no good winning when it’s all good. When it gets put on top of you when you’ve gone through all your gears and you’ve got to find something else… He [Monroe] hasn’t done that. He didn’t even go through the gears because he quit in round 6.”
The American opted not to make eye contact with Saunders during the brief customary face off, electing to look skyward whilst indulging in a seemingly mock prayer ritual for his imminent adversary’s soul. The champion soon became bored with the scenario and so the fighters broke off and went their separate ways. Billy Joe hung around for interviews with any and all media but Monroe Jr left the building immediately having earlier conceded, “I’m only here so I don’t get fined.”
If Saunders appears to have the psychological ascendance, it remains a matter to be settled in the ring when all said and done. Styles make fights and all of that. Two slick southpaws who both like to use the ring are more than capable of serving up an anti – climactic spectacle but, Art Pelullo, Monroe’s manager and veteran U.S fight figure doesn’t foresee such a scenario.
Styles make fights and all of that. Two slick southpaws who both like to use the ring are more than capable of serving up an anti – climactic spectacle but, Art Pelullo, Monroe’s manager and veteran U.S fight figure doesn’t foresee such a scenario.
“I think this is Billy Joe Saunders’ toughest opponent to date. It could wind up to be a boring fight but I don’t think it’s going to be that way. I think we’re going to have a very entertaining fight… they’re going to engage each other and somebody is going to get stopped.”
Numerous observers have identified Monroe as a live underdog and potential banana skin for a champion who has hardly been active in the manner of a vintage Henry Armstrong since annexing the title in late 2015. He has undeniable skills and perhaps the crushing Golovkin defeat has made him a better fighter, ready and prepared to fulfil his destiny.
Conversely, perhaps it is Willie’s destiny to be a ‘nearly man’ and footnote to the careers of men who were prepared to go to a dark place that he would rather not. In the final analysis, I’m struggling to think of anything palpable that he can do better than a fully fit and focused Billy Joe Saunders, who is plainly revitalised under the stewardship of Dominic Ingle and the attendant Wincobank camaraderie
If it comes down to a war of attrition in which both fighters are required to dig deep then Saunders will be the last man standing but the pick, on this occasion, is for the WBO champion to make his second successful defence in convincing fashion via the long route.
READ MORE:
Billy Joe Saunders Says Monroe Jr Is A Quitter And Mentally Beaten
Artie Pelullo Defends His Fighter And Explains Why Monroe Is Not A Quitter
Saunders-Monroe Jr Press Conference Highlights