by David P. Greisman

It started innocently enough — doesn’t it always — before the bad blood surfaced between middleweights Gabriel Rosado and Willie Monroe.

Each was once proposed to face 160-pound titleholder Billy Joe Saunders on the Sept. 17 undercard of Canelo Alvarez vs. Liam Smith, only for Saunders to turn down those fights and an appearance on the show altogether. Instead, Rosado and Monroe will meet each other.

Rosado was asked about the difference in preparing for Saunders and then preparing for Monroe instead. Monroe then noted that Saunders never even entered negotiations to face him, while negotiations between Saunders and Rosado started but broke down.

 "When Billy Joe Saunders was asked to fight Willie Monroe, they immediately said nope,” Monroe said on an Aug. 29 press conference call.

 That set Rosado off.

“I don’t even know who Monroe thinks he is,” Rosado said. “He thinks he’s this big puncher and people are scared to fight him. Nobody knows who he is. Willie’s acting like he’s being ducked. He’s really not special.”

 “I didn’t know punching was the only aspect of boxing,” Monroe said.

Rosado: “You haven’t fought no world class fighters. You fought GGG [Gennady Golovkin] and quit. I’m going to make you quit, too. You’re nothing special, dude. You fought a bunch of ESPN-level fighters.”

Monroe: “I’m about to fight another one.”

Rosado: “I’ve got world-class fighters on my resume that I beat.”

Rosado is 23-9 with 13 KOs. He was stopped by Golovkin in 2013, lost a controversial split decision to J’Leon Love later that year in a bout that was later overturned when Love tested positive for a diuretic, and then proceeded to drop three straight to Peter Quillin (TKO10), Jermell Charlo (UD10) and David Lemieux (TKO10).

But after a yearlong layoff, Rosado returned last December and outpointed Joshua Clottey, then added a decision over Antonio Gutierrez this past June.

Monroe, meanwhile, is 20-2 with 6 KOs. He went from winning the “Boxcino” tournament on ESPN to being stopped by Golovkin in 2015. After more than a year away, he came back this past June and won a decision over John Thompson.

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