On September 17, WBO Junior middleweight champion Liam “Beefy” Smith, will defend his world title against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on HBO Pay-Per-View. The event, which encompasses Mexican Independence Day, is set to take place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The announcing of this pay-per-view main event was a let down to most boxing fans, as the hopes were that Canelo would instead face Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in a Middleweight title unification bout.
However, Canelo, at the advice of his promoter, Golden Boy Promotions, vacated his WBC Middleweight title and dropped down to Jr. Middleweight to face Smith instead.
Although the main event may have boxing fans feeling disappointed, it’s co-feature seems to be gathering much interest by the minute.
The co-main event will feature Gabriel “King” Rosado (23-9, 13 KOs) from Philadelphia, who will be facing fellow former world title challenger, Willie “El Mongoose” Monroe Jr. (20-2, 6 KOs) hailing from Rochester, New York, in a 12-round middleweight bout.
The two have both showed themselves as fearless competitors, as both have fought the likes of “GGG,” although both eventually fell short.
Their well-known fearlessness inside the ring has now spilled outside of the ring, as the two engaged in a heated media conference call on August 31.
The two started their portion of the call amicably, as both were seemingly happy to be back in the ring and thankful for the opportunity to return to a major fight card.
But the call quickly escalated when Monroe explained that he felt he was ducked by Billy Joe Saunders, who also fell out of negations with Rosado.
Monroe explained the mutual situation with Saunders to the media on the call. “When Billy Jo Saunders was asked to fight Willie Monroe, they immediately said, nope. But at least they made it to negotiations with Rosado. So I mean we were already in the gym.”
This statement from Monroe seemed to send Rosado on a rampage for the rest of the call.
Rosado quickly interjected. “Honestly, I don’t even know who Monroe thinks he is. He thinks he’s a big puncher or something and people are scared to fight him. Nobody knows who the hell he is,” said Rosado.
“Honestly, I told Gomez just, whoever it is, just make it happen, doesn’t matter. Willie’s acting like he’s being ducked, like he’s some big puncher. He’s really not that special. He only fought one world class…”
Before Rosado could finish, Monroe interjected. “I didn’t know punching was the only aspect of boxing,” said Monroe.
The two went back and forth in a heated battle of words.
“You didn’t fight nobody. You didn’t fight no world class fighters. You fought Triple-G and you quit, and I’m going to make you quit too,” said Rosado.
“That’s all you can say. Every time a middleweight has you, he’s run through you,” said Monroe.
“You ain’t special. You fought a bunch of ESPN fighters,” said Rosado.
“Okay, and I’m about to fight another one,” said Monroe.
The call continued to heat up with Rosado taking shots at Monroe throughout the length of the call, while Monroe stayed professional and seemed to keep his cool.
In a private discussion after the conference call, Monroe explained to Round By Round Boxing that he doesn’t consider himself much of a trash talker.
[otw_shortcode_quote border=”bordered” border_style=”bordered”]I have never been the type that talks smack, just never been my style. He’s at a cross road position in his boxing career. He’s made some bad choices and his record reflects it. I honestly relish this opportunity to beat him because he’s a good fighter so he’s probably dealing with a lot of anger outside of me. [But] I’m cooler than the other side of the pillow [and] not shaken at all, but come September 17 he’ll find out.[/otw_shortcode_quote]
Monroe and Rosado ended the call in different ways. Rosado opted to keep tensions high, while Monroe tried to end things on a positive note.
“Thanks to everybody, thanks to HBO. Thanks to pay-per-view. Thanks to Golden Boy and Banner Promotions for giving Willie Monroe this opportunity. And God bless everyone, and September 17th, ready to rock ‘n’ roll,” said Monroe.
“Yeah, just looking forward to Cowboy Stadium. I’m really, really looking forward to knocking Willie Monroe out,” said Rosado.
Those were not the last words Rosado felt the need to say on the call. He was sure to also clearly add in “Willie’s a bitch…” a few times while the fighter’s manager spoke.
Round By Round Boxing asked Monroe for some clarification as to why he feels Rosado seemed to have so much animosity for him.
“What’s funny is he waited on the line for that call all that time to try and start an argument and the argument never happened. [It was a] nice attempt, but it was a no go. He actually sounded very classless, not the way to act for a movie star or maybe that is all he’s doing…. acting!”
Come September 17, these two will have no time left for acting, peaceful responding, or trash talking, as their new found bad blood will be settled once and for all; inside the ring.
Who do you think will win Gabriel Rosado or Willie Monroe Jr.? Let us know! Check online boxing odds for Rosado vs. Monroe!
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