Munroe takes a voluntary

Had a really long reply typed out and then something ****ed up and it was deleted but anyway........here's a shorter version .

Had a really long reply typed out and then something ****ed up and it was deleted but anyway........here's a shorter version .

I suspected Arsen Matirosian would be an easy defence for Munroe, his record looks pretty poor. Then I checked the BBBofC website and found out that Sean Hughes was intended to be the original opponent…….so you can be sure Matirosian won’t be up to much.

However I think I may know one of the reasons he was selected . He’s ranked #11 by the WBA and with Munroe ranked #9 Maloney obviously is trying to get him up the ratings.

BTW for those interested:
Current rankings for the European Super Bantamweights on the World scene :
Rendall Munroe: WBC 17th, WBA 9th, IBF 8th,
Kiko Martinez: 11th IBF
Bernard Dunne:WBC 27th, WBO 12th
Simeone Maludrottu: WBC 11th, 14th IBF(Bantamweight),
Michael Hunter: WBO 11th
Matthew Marsh: WBC 29th
Damir Bulatov: WBC 40th
Arsen Matirosian: WBA 11th

How the EBU has things:
Champion: Munroe
Mandatory: Martinez

1.Simeone Maludrottu
2.Bernard Dunne
3.Matthew Marsh
4.Esham Pickering
5.Reidar Walstad
6.Salem Bouaita
7.Jeremy Parodi
8.Arsen Matirosian
9.Fausto Bartollozi
10.Fabrizio Trotta
11.Sean Hughes
12.Massimo Mora
13.Zsolt Bedak

As someone else said Munroe will have to defend against Martinez shortly after this, but Martinez did indeed look very poor in Ireland recently and Munroe should decision him again once he doesn’t get caught. After that I can see them going after Matthew Marsh for the British title and Sean Hughes in a defence of European and British before looking for a World shot. Hughes is still on this card just on the undercard and I reckon he’ll be a voluntary at some point in Munroe’s reign.

Maloney wants no part of Dunne, or maybe I should rephrase that to Maloney wants to part of Dunne unless it’s in England. A Dunne v Munroe bout could sell out the refurbished Point Depot(actually 14,000 capacity) and the fight live on terrestrial tv in Ireland watched by over half a million people . A fight with Dunne in England would probably have Munroe moving up from fighting leisure centres, this is Munroe’s 3rd fight in a row in a leisure centre. However even in a proper arena I can’t see Munroe attracting more than 3,000-4,000 in a proper Arena, they’d be relying on either a good undercard our plenty of Irish fans to sell the fight . It would of course be televised by Sky.

Now Dunne and Peters are contracted to RTÉ, however I have my doubts about Munroe actually being contracted to Sky, Maloney probably but Munroe I’m not sure. Afterall Haye obviously wasn’t contracted only to Sky as otherwise Setanta still wouldn’t have been able to show Haye-Mormeck when Sky turned it down and Carl Froch had no problems fighting on ITV recently, either did Junior Witter .

Now someone of you are probably thinking okay, whatever about the location but why can’t both channels show it, afterall they’re in different countries. Well in Ireland about half the country has Sky Sports and RTÉ know they’ll watch it on Sky because its presentation analysts and particulary commentators are superior.

Dunne does have one serious problem though, the idea seemed to be wait till he’s mandatory and it will go to purse bids and Peters, who I’m fairly sure would be able to get more money out of RTÉ than Sky can from Maloney and who would be able to generate much greater ticket sales would outbid Maloney and the fight would happen here. However it seems our Italian friend Simeone Maludrottu has come along to rob us Irish of something again.

After previous shenanigans involving Maludrottu I’m not sure Dunne will be able to become mandatory after Martinez no matter who he beats.
I think Dunne should go after the returning Michael Hunter, he’s still ranked #11 by the WBO(one place ahead of Dunne) and if I am just being a crazy sceptic a win over him would get Dunne the mandatory position over Maludrottu.

As for Munroe, from one point of view Matirosian-Martinez-Marsh-Hughes-Maludrottu seems like a good idea. Maludrottu would be able to give Munroe a good test before a World title fight without beating him, however the risk that he’d still ‘beat’ him is there so I think they should look for a World title fight just before he’s enforced as mandatory.

Caballero might be an option for Munroe, Dunne was offered a Caballero fight for September a little while before he faced Marchiano but his camp felt it was too early into his comeback for a World title fight(good decision imo) and he’s the wrong champion for Dunne to be aiming at .

Whether a Dunne v Munroe fight will ever happen now who knows, one camp will have to give in for it to happen and I think Hunter against either man is much more likely to happen .

 

1) Cheers for that, still 10,000 is quite a decent crowd . It's more than most of the American Casinos can even hold .

2)Even I was a little shocked by it, and I like to think of myself as pretty well up on stupid decisions and rankings by the sanctioning organisations .

3&4 I simply agree with .

Dunne's path is most likely to consist of past their prime South Americans and Central Americans if he can't get a European title fight . In a way I can see where Maloney is coming from, he's got the champion and why would he want to go away to defend his title .

But I just think the fight would be wasted in the UK .
When Bernard Dunne was European Champion his fights were the most significant thing happening in the country that day . It seemed like the whole country was watching the Pickering fight(and somehow even more with the Martinez fight) .

In the UK it's just another domestic level boxing card on a Friday night on a subscription sports channel .