Why Willie Monroe Jr. thinks he can beat Gennady Golovkin

In the early-to-mid 1970s, there were a lot of very good, very tough middleweights fighting out of Philadelphia.

Men such as Willie "The Worm" Monroe, Bobby "Boogaloo" Watts, Eugene "Cyclone" Hart and "Bad" Bennie Briscoe were among a long list of fighters who had the ability to beat anyone they stepped into the ring against.

The legendary middleweight champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler cut his teeth and proved his greatness, in part, by battling all of those men.

One of those who got the best of him was Monroe, a slick boxer who handed Hagler only his second defeat on March 9, 1976, in the Spectrum in Philadelphia.

After that loss, Hagler went on to win 20 in a row and go 36-0-1 until a hotly disputed career-ending defeat to archrival Sugar Ray Leonard.

Monroe's great nephew, Willie "El Mongoose" Monroe Jr. was born 10 years after that epic win by his great uncle. And though it wasn't something that was a constant conversation around the dinner table, Monroe Jr. certainly was aware of what "The Worm" had accomplished.

And now, all these years later, he finds himself in a similarly difficult situation. Gennady Golovkin is no Hagler, to be sure, but he's a 50-to-1 or more favorite, depending upon where you look, to defeat Monroe Jr. on Saturday when they meet for the WBA middleweight title in the main event of an HBO-televised card in Inglewood, Calif.

Monroe has largely been ignored throughout the promotion. The fight, as Golovkin is wont to say, will be a "big drama show," as the popular Kazakh star pursues his 20th consecutive knockout victory.

Monroe, though, insists he's fine with things. All he wanted was an opportunity and he's gotten it. He can't, he said, ask for anything more.

"I can't worry about what another man thinks of me, because when it's all said and done, no one else is going to do the work for me and no one else is getting up in that ring for me," said Monroe, who is 19-1 with six knockouts.

The six knockouts on Monroe's ledger stand out like a flashing neon sign on the Las Vegas Strip. Golovkin has had more knockouts since 2013 than Monroe has in his career.

Asked if he feels he has enough power to prevent Golovkin from bull rushing him and overwhelming him, Monroe didn't shy away.

"If you look at the numbers, that's a legitimate question," Monroe said. "It's something I would ask, too. But boxing is the sweet science, and nothing in boxing is right or wrong. I'm a real boxing enthusiast, and I can remember hearing about the young Cassius [Clay, before he changed his name to Muhammad Ali] training with the great Archie Moore.

"Cassius Clay had that style of slipping punches by leaning way back, pulling his head straight back, and the great Archie Moore told him, 'You keep boxing like that and you'll be sweeping the floors in my gym.' The great Roy Jones unconventionally would lead with his left hook a lot, and fought with his hands down. These are things where conventional wisdom would say it's a bad thing, but they took what everyone said was bad and made it right."

Monroe's way to make things right remains to be seen, though he faces a monumental challenge. Golovkin hasn't really been threatened over the past four years as he's slowly made his way up the mythical pound-for-pound lists.

When Monroe Jr.'s great uncle defeated Hagler, Hagler had yet to become the fearsome Hall of Fame-bound champion he was destined to be. But even at that point, he was a highly regarded fighter who many at the time saw as a potential successor to the reigning middleweight king, Carlos Monzon.

Monroe Jr. grew up with the memory of what his uncle did to Hagler, though he was loathe to draw parallels to his own situation.

"I was aware at an early age of what he did," Monroe Jr. said of his great uncle. "I didn't know Marvin Hagler until I had gotten older and started seriously studying boxing, but it was a great accomplishment and solidified the family name in the sport."

Willie "The Worm" Monroe not only never won the middleweight title, he never even got a shot at it, despite the victory over Hagler.

If his great nephew pulls off the colossal upset on Saturday, he'll not only have topped the best middleweight of his day, he'll also win a championship.

So, Monroe Jr. isn't going to let anything like long odds or someone else's opinion keep him from his date with destiny.

"At the end of the day, I want to be remembered as one of the best ever to put on a pair of gloves, and these are the fights you have to win to do that," he said. "It's happened time and time again in boxing history. Everyone tells a guy he has no shot and he's going to get killed, but the guy doesn't listen and believes in himself and shocks everyone.

"I believe I'm here for a reason and that reason is to win this fight. I want to make my stand and become something special. The key to any fight is imposing your will and being in control. I'm going to enjoy the opportunity and the moment and go out there and do what I know I'm meant to do."

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