The Hottest Boxing Storylines for the Week of May 17
Gennady Golovkin knocked out his 20th straight opponent Saturday night while further endearing himself to Southern California's rabid Mexican fanbase, but did GGG show some weaknesses in his game?
After all, Willie Monroe Jr. did hang around for six rounds and land some heavy leather of his own against the supposedly indestructible Kazakh wrecking machine.
We take a look at the fight and whether or not people are overreacting, as usual.
Roman Gonzalez was the clear shining star of Saturday night's action.
We look at his performance and what could come next for Chocolatito now that he's broken the dam and gotten to big-time boxing on HBO.
Adrien Broner and Shawn Porter are set to meet in June in a battle for Ohio, so who has the advantage in that contest?
All that, plus we take a look at Andre Dirrell vs. James DeGale this Saturday for a vacant 168-pound title and the options for Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s final fight.
These are the hottest boxing storylines for the week of May 17.
Can We Not Overreact to Golovkin Getting Hit?
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GGG came, saw and conquered yet again Saturday night at the Forum in Inglewood, California, stopping Monroe in the sixth round of a fight most didn't expect to last that long.
Golovkin was his usual patient self, waiting for openings to strike and not getting frustrated or dissuaded by his foe's frequent movement or surprising willingness to stand and engage at times in the center of the ring.
Monroe was absolutely tattooed twice in the second round, and it appeared that affairs would come to a speedy and predictable conclusion right there. But the Rochester, New York, native showed tremendous guts and will to not only hang around for a few more rounds but also to do something we've not seen from any of GGG's most recent victims—fight back.
The underdog's best round came in the fourth when he landed 33 shots to Golovkin's 30, according to CompuBox tracking. And many of those weren't pitty-pat shots either. Monroe was going all-in, and he landed some serious leather, even though Golovkin was never bothered and invited him in for more.
In the end the Kazakh destroyer got his man and made Monroe a footnote as his 20th knockout in a row, but there will be naysayers and doubters who will talk about Golovkin being exposed because of this performance? Yes.
Is that fair? Nope.
Guys get hit in boxing, even the best of them. It happens. Get over it.
And this could prove to be a good thing in the long run.
Golovkin has been murder on his opponents, but he's had something of a hard time attracting anyone high-profile with the requisite guts and incentive to fight him. It's entirely possible that a performance where he looked something less than a viciously invulnerable destroyer for every second could help him attract a significant fight.
Canelo Alvarez was among those not impressed, tweeting (in Spanish) that when he moves up to middleweight he doesn't see any real challenges there for him. That's a direct swipe at both GGG and Miguel Cotto, the lineal champion who is his likely next opponent in the fall.
Ideally, GGG would be the next in line for whoever wins that fight.
Canelo has been open to the possibility of facing Golovkin when the time is right, per David Greisman of BoxingScene.com, but Cotto has been slippery and evasive on the topic. That fight doesn't seem likely to ever see the light of day.
But hopefully this performance, which had much more to do with Monroe's guts than anything GGG did wrong, will give somebody the incentive to accept the challenge and keep this "big drama show" dramatic.
How Good Is Roman Gonzalez?
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Chocolatito was the star of the show in his HBO debut Saturday night.
The three-division and current WBC flyweight champion showed a premium-cable audience just why so many boxing fans "in the know" have been raving about him for years. He demolished Edgar Sosa, a former world champion in his own right, with precise combination punches, forcing the referee to stop the bout in Round 2.
Gonzalez outlanded Sosa 72-14 in the abbreviated bout, according to CompuBox, and was absolutely pummeling him along the ropes when the referee intervened to stop the carnage.
This guy is a budding star, and if the people at HBO are smart—which they've proved to be with developing young talent—they'd have him on the network as often as possible.
He's fun, exciting and certainly doesn't get paid by the hour, as his borderline ridiculous stat line of 37 knockouts in 43 fights—all while campaigning between 105 and 112 pounds—indicates.
The lighter weights generally aren't big business in the United States—they're figuratively bigger in Latin America and Asia—but Chocolatito has a chance to change that in a big, big way.
He has attractive fight options all around him.
A rematch with Juan Francisco Estrada—whom Gonzalez beat in epic fashion late in 2012—would be dynamite.
Down the line, a fight with undefeated Japanese sensation Naoya Inoue—which would challenge for most anticipated lower-weight fight of all time—will be the matchup that fans want to see.
Inoue is just 22 years old and has won seven of his eight fights by knockout and world championships in two divisions, including a two-round stomping of longtime super flyweight champ Omar Narvaez in his last fight.
Now Inoue vs. Gonzalez would be something, and hopefully we get it sooner rather than later.
Who Has the Edge in the "Battle for Ohio"?
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Broner and Porter—both former welterweight champions—will meet in the Battle of Ohio on Premier Boxing Champions on June 20.
The fight will take place at a catchweight of 144 or 145 pounds and will take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, which, in case you are wondering, is not in Ohio.
That seems like something of a wasted opportunity and a curiosity for a fight being billed as the battle for a state some 2,000 miles away.
But that's neither here nor there.
Broner comes into this fight looking to extend his winning streak to four since suffering the first defeat of his career against Argentine slugger Marcos Maidana. None of his opponents during that run have the cache of Porter, a former 147-pound champion and—just a year ago this time—once rising star.
Let's not underestimate the stakes here.
Broner is never going to be his idol Floyd Mayweather, but he has engendered a lot of hate from a lot of people with his brash, rude and oftentimes idiotic actions both inside and outside the ring. That type of thing sells, but only if you keep winning.
Porter is the anti-Broner. He's likable and respectful and just takes care of business in a way that doesn't give you any reason to not root for him.
But his star has crashed back to earth after taking dominant wins over Devon Alexander and Paulie Malignaggi and then being thoroughly outboxed by Kell Brook to lose his world title. The word "exposed" was thrown around quite a bit after that loss.
He can't afford to let this opportunity slip away.
The catchweight probably favors Broner—he's struggled at full welterweight—but Porter is an aggressive swarmer, and the last time The Problem faced a guy like that he had a huge problem.
Porter doesn't have Maidana's power, but if he can turn this into a dogfight, he could have the advantage.
Does the Resurrected Matrix Have a First World Title in His Sights?
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Andre Dirrell—not to be confused with his brother and former world champion Anthony Dirrell—has a chance to come all the way back from serious neurological issues and capture a world championship Saturday afternoon on PBC on NBC.
The Matrix—who now calls himself the Resurrected—will face James DeGale for the vacant IBF Super Middleweight Championship, which was given up by Carl Froch, in his first title challenge since dropping a split decision to The Cobra in 2009 during Showtime's Super Six tournament.
DeGale comes across the pond from Great Britain—for whom he won an Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games—with just one defeat on his resume and hopes to keep the title in England.
The elder of the fighting Dirrells was seriously injured during the Super Six in a fight against Arthur Abraham that he was winning heading into Round 11.
A wet spot on the ring caused Dirrell to slip down to one knee, and Abraham connected on a punch that left him unconscious on the mat and shaking. Abraham was disqualified for an intentional foul, and Dirrell was forced to take the next 21 months off to deal with the subsequent neurological problems that threatened his career.
He's fought five times since—all against lower-level opposition—and will be taking a significant step up in class against DeGale, who has won 10 straight fights since dropping a majority decision to George Groves in 2011.
That's a fight DeGale hopes to avenge, and a world title would definitely sweeten the pot for that potential rematch.
But Dirrell has overcome a ton to get to this moment, and he's not going to hand it away with so much uncertainty in his future.
Who Lands the Final Shot at Floyd?
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Let the speculation game being anew, perhaps for the final time.
Mayweather is just a little over two weeks removed from his dominant career-defining win over longtime rival Manny Pacquiao, and the speculation about who's got next is already rolling down the highway of boxing rumors.
The pound-for-pound king didn't mention any names, but he did hint, in comments to DJ Whoo Kid of Shade 45 Radio (h/t Edward Chaykovsky of BoxingScene.com) that his next fight would be a spectacle against a dangerous foe.
Amir Khan seems the most likely name to get drawn from the hat, assuming he gets past Chris Algieri on May 29 at the Barclays Center. Other possibilities include undefeated rising star Keith Thurman and IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook.
Khan presents the challenge of speed that exceeds even that of Mayweather. Thurman is a powerful precision puncher who appears built for the big lights, and Brook could bring the allure of another mega payday against a British fighter—remember the crowds and hoopla when Floyd faced Ricky Hatton?
So what say you, boxing fans?
Who do you want to see get the final crack at Money Mayweather?
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