Sherdog Boxing: The Weekly Wrap

Willie Monroe Sr. Dies at 73

Legendary Philadelphia fighter and father of current middleweight contender Willie Monroe Jr., Willie “The Worm” Monroe died at 73 years old of complications due to Alzheimers disease this week. Along with Sugar Ray Leonard and Bobby “Boogaloo” Watts, Monroe is one of only three opponents to have beaten Marvelous Marvin Hagler. However, Monroe is the only fighter Hagler believes legitimately beat him.

Monroe never won a world title and came up short against Hagler in two fights after the victory, while his son had two shots at winning a middleweight title but came up short against both Billy Joe Saunders and Gennadiy Golovkin. Monroe Jr. will likely get another shot at a middleweight belt, but his father won’t be around to see if his son can win the title he never could, which is a shame. Still, RIP to former Hagler conqueror and Philadelphia boxing legend, Willie “The Worm” Monroe.

Canelo Alvarez Becomes WBC “Franchise” Champion, May Face Smith or Kovalev Rather Than GGG

In the surest sign that belts in boxing have become more worthless than they are in professional wrestling, the WBC promoted Jermall Charlo to its full middleweight champion and made Canelo Alvarez the “Franchise” Champion. That means that Canelo no longer has to face any of the WBC’s mandatory opponents and can essentially choose to fight whoever he wants while maintaining his belt. While the WBC got trashed on social media for the move, their hands may have been tied by Canelo’s superstardom.

See, in 2017 the WBC ordered Canelo to face GGG. Canelo passed on the idea, was stripped of the belt and then developed a vendetta against the WBC for the move. Canelo declared that he didn’t want the special belt they made for his match against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and that he didn’t want their middleweight belt even if he beat GGG. The organization soon realized how little power they had over the No. 1 star in boxing and have been at Canelo’s mercy ever since.

Speaking of Canelo, there are rumors that with talks of a third GGG fight stalling (the issue is still the location of the fight), he’s looking to fight either Callum Smith at 168 or Sergey Kovalev at 175. Because of the weight, the Smith fight would be risky, but the Kovalev fight would be insane. At the same time, if this was just posturing Canelo would be talking about fighting Demetrius Andrade on a quick turnaround or even unifying the WBC belts against Jermall Charlo, so there may well be some truth to this. All credit to Canelo if he actually faces Kovalev.

Speaking of useless belts, the WBC had a “Pearl” belt made for the absurd mismatch that was Amir Khan-Neeraj Goyat with the intention of promoting peace between Pakistan and India. Goyat got hurt in a car crash, so Khan is now facing Australia’s Billy Dib. The WBC pulled the “Pearl” belt, and the fight is now for the “International” title.

It’s pretty amazing that when a bunch of seven-year olds get a participation trophy for a spelling bee, some super-macho guy will scoff about everyone getting a trophy, but some of the best athletes in the world are more than happy to wear these worthless belts. Khan should acknowledge this being any sort of title fight is absurd and reject the belt when they try to hand it to him. He won’t, but he should.

Conlan’s Revenge Fight Against Nikitin Cancelled Over Nikitin Injury

Vladimir Nikitin tore his bicep this week, so Michael Conlan’s chance at revenge against the fighter that controversially beat him at the 2016 Olympics in Rio will have to wait, potentially forever. Conlan is still going to fight on Aug. 3, and is supposedly looking for a tougher, but less personal opponent that will move him up the rankings quicker.

If that happens, he may never get to face Nikitin. Conlan is already 11-0 while Nikitin is only 3-0. So, if Conlan shoots up the featherweight rankings it will be hard to imagine him facing Nikitin in what would be a significant step back in competition at a time he may be looking for a title shot. Maybe years from now the fight will be a great grudge match, but for now it doesn’t look like it will happen anytime soon.

Lomachenko-Campbell Official for Aug. 31 in the UK

In an announcement that was not a shocker, but still notable, Vasiliy Lomachenko will travel to the UK to face English former Olympic Gold Medalist Josh Campbell on August 31. Lomachenko is so good he’s willing to casually head to the UK to face a two-loss former Olympic gold medalist in his home nation like it’s an exhibition fight as part of a world tour. That’s pretty crazy. But, it’s another Olympic gold medalist that keeps trying to goad Lomachenko into a fight.

That would be the UFC’s Henry Cejudo, an Olympic wrestler who keeps tweeting that he wants to face Lomachenko in the boxing ring. Perhaps as a response. Loma keeps putting up videos of himself learning to throw kicks, and for a guy just messing around after boxing practice, he looks pretty good.

Talks Are of Broner Facing Lee Selby Likely in the U.S.

Supposedly, Lee Selby is going to fight Adrien Broner, but nobody is sure why. The fight makes sense for Broner, who needs a win badly after going 1-2-1 in his last four fights, and who was generating serious social media debate over whether he could beat the much larger former amateur boxer 50 Cent in a matchup he kept calling for. But for Selby, it’s an incredibly odd decision.

Selby has fought the vast majority of his career at featherweight, fought his last fight at lightweight, and will now likely fight Broner at 140. Keep in mind, Selby has only stopped nine opponents in 27 wins, so it’s not a matter of whether or not his power will travel. He never had any. Yes, Broner is a big name but this seems like a very tough matchup for Selby to win, especially with rumors stating he’s willing to do the fight in the USA. Credit to Selby for taking a chance, we’ll see if it works out for him.

Manzanilla Steps In to Face Stevenson

Shakur Stevenson needed a new opponent after Hairon Socarras bailed on the fight for unknown reasons. Franklin Manzanilla, the hard hitting Venezuelan coming off a loss to Rey Vargas has stepped up to the plate and will fight Stevenson on July 13. Stevenson is likely far too good for Manzanilla, but Manzanilla is a big puncher so it could be an exciting fight if he manages to land clean on the Olympic silver medalist.

Wladimir Klitschko Rescued after Yacht Catches Fire

Former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko had a scary moment this week, when the yacht he was cruising around on caught on fire off the coast of Spain. Klitschko tweeted the rescue, adding the caption “Be careful what you wish for: fate took my wish for “some #adrenalin” a bit too literally and our boat-trip Sunday night ended up in our boat #igniting and family & friends being evacuated by coast guard and fire rescue-team. No worries: we are all fine! #theroofisonfire #song.”

The fact that Klitschko felt the need to write “#song” so that people got his incredibly obvious reference is so telling. Wladimir Klitschko had an amazing ability to make fights -- which he almost always won by knockout -- somehow incredibly boring. It’s amazing he can do the same with a middle-of-the-night yacht fire.