Gennady Golovkin failed to get a bout against Miguel Cotto and settled with a fight against Willie Monroe Jr. on May 16 at the Forum in Inglewood, California.

Golovkin, who holds a perfect 32-0 record with 29 knockout victories, will be heavy favorite in the May 16 fight, but Monroe sees an upset win in their upcoming showdown, which he expects to be very exciting because of their different fighting styles.

"On May 16, I will shock the world," Monroe said via ProBoxing-Fans. "I think this is an awesome fight. We have two contrasting styles and that will make for some spontaneous combustion."

Monroe, who holds a 19-1 record with six stoppage victories, is coming off an impressive performance against Brian Vera in January, cruising to a lopsided decision victory to earn a shot against the unbeaten world champion.

Golovkin, the reigning International Boxing Organization and World Boxing Association middleweight champion, knocked Martin Murray out in the 11th round of their title fight last month in Monaco.

The 32-year-old Kazakh wanted to face Cotto, the reigning World Boxing Council middleweight champion, to unify their world titles, but the Puerto Rican did not show any interest in facing Golovkin, whose camp eventually shifted their focus on arranging the fight against Monroe.

Abel Sanchez, Golovkin's trainer, said that Cotto was indeed the top fighter on their list of possible opponents, but they believe the reigning WBC middleweight champions is not willing to take a risk in facing GGG.

"I think that Miguel's got other plans," Sanchez told BoxingScene. "I think that Miguel realizes that Golovkin is just too much for him and is going in a different direction, which is fine for us. We just want to fight for the middleweight title. It doesn't matter who it's against."

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman recently said that Cotto should defend his title against Golovkin, but Sanchez conceded that they cannot force the 34-year-old to face GGG, which was the reason why they settled for the next best option.

Sanchez added that if Golovkin wins against Murray, they will likely consider facing other middleweight champions like World Boxing Organization title holder Andy Lee or the winner of the upcoming International Boxing Federation middleweight title fight between Hassan N'Dam and David Lemieux later this year.

For the latest sports news, follow Latin Post Sports on Twitter.

FOR MORE BOXING NEWS UPDATES, CLICK ON THIS LINK TO VISIT LATIN POST.COM'S SPORTS PAGE.

Related