By Ian S Palmer
Hugo ‘The Boss’ Centeno Jr. of Oxnard, California takes on Willie Monroe Jr of Rochester, New York in San Jacinto, California this Saturday, June 1st. The 10-round middleweight bout can be seen live in the USA on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Deportes. Centeno last fought in February when he beat via a four-round technical decision. Monroe’s last outing came in August when he beat Javier Maciel by a 10-round unanimous decision.
Centeno is a 28-year-old who’s been stopped twice in two losses and heads into the fight with a mark of 27-2 with 14 Kos. He’s just over 6-feet-1-inch tall and has a reach of 75.5 inches. Centeno had a fine amateur career and went 90-8 before turning pro back in March of 2009. Since then he’s boxed 144 rounds. He has pretty good power even though his knockout ratio currently stands at an average 47 per cent. His chin is on the questionable side though.
Centeno’s first defeat as a pro came via a 10th-round TKO at the hands of Maciej Sulecki in June of 2016 and he was also stopped by Jermall Charlo in the second round in April of last year. He beat James De La Rosa by fifth-round KO in December of 2014 and fought to a no-contest with Julian Williams in 2013. The fight was stopped in the fourth round due to an accidental head butt, but Centeno was trailing 30-27 on all three scorecards. He also has a third-round stoppage of Immanuwel Aleem under his belt in 2017.
The 32-year-old Monroe Jr. is a southpaw who’s best known for being stopped in May of 2015 by Gennady Golovkin in the sixth round in a world title shot. Since then he’s beaten John Thompson and Gabriel Rosado by unanimous decisions and dropped a unanimous decision to Billy Joe Saunders in a shot at the WBO title in 2017. Monroe owns a record of 23-3 along with 6 Kos. His other career defeat came at the hands of Darnell Boone via an eight-round split decision back in 2011.
Monroe is a skilled boxer with a pretty solid chin who stands 5-feet-10-inches tall and has a 74-inch reach. He gives up three inches in height to Centeno as well as 1.5-inches in reach. Monroe possesses very little in the way of power though as his knockout ratio currently stands at just 23 per cent. He turned pro in 2008 and has fought 170 rounds since then. Monroe took part in the Boxcino Middleweight Tournament in 2014 and defeated Brandon Adams, Donatas Bondorovas and VItaliy Kopylenko. He also has a win over Brian Vera.
Monroe has done pretty well so far against Grade B opponents, but his wins over Vera and Rosado should be noted and he did as well as he could against Golovkin and Saunders. However, like Centeno, he hasn’t faced a steady diet of Grade A fighters. This is what makes this a pretty even and competitive matchup.
Prediction…
This is an evenly-matched bout with Centeno having more power but Monroe having the slightly better chin. Monroe is a slick boxer while Centeno is more of a slugger. It should be relatively close and I think Monroe gets the edge due to his boxing skills.
