BOTH Willie Monroe Jr and Gabriel Rosado, who will box one another on September 17, have taken on Gennady Golovkin in the past. ‘GGG’ stopped both of them, halting Monroe in six rounds with Rosado going seven, but they provide interesting takes on IBF welterweight champion stepping up two divisions to take on the world’s leading middleweight.
Monroe had praise for Brook. “I think you’ve got to give props to Kell Brook for taking on a monster like Triple G. I think it’s definitely a daring move. I’m a big believer in step big, win big. So it will be good for Kell Brook either way. But we’ve got to understand also that boxing isn’t what it was yesterday. It’s not what it’s going to be tomorrow. They just have to enjoy what you have in front of you. These are the type of fights that people may complain about or have bad things to say about now, and 15 years from now they’ll talk about how great it was,” he said. “So instead of waiting for 15 years from now and look back and say, damn, that was a great opportunity. Again things have to step up, so go ahead and give him his props now.”
Rosado has respect for Brook, but still didn’t fancy his chances against Golovkin. “I mean Kell Brook is an awesome boxer and boxing is a cerebral sport. It’s 99.9 mental and .1 physical. And Brook has the experience and knows how to put it together. So mentally if he can neutralize Golovkin’s power and relentlessness, then it’s a fight he can win. I’ll never count any man out, because like I said, boxing is 99.9% mental and .1 physical,” Gabriel said. “I think just the match-up, maybe Brook will box him for a couple of rounds before he gets knocked out. But I mean it’s a welterweight fighting a middleweight.
“I mean, skillwise Brook could hang with him, but this is the reason they make weight classes.”
