Willie Monroe Jr. improved to 19-1 (6 KO’s) with a solid boxing performance against veteran Brian Vera Jr. in ESPN’s Friday Night Fights main event. Monroe scored a knockdown in the fifth round when Vera’s glove touched the canvas in the middle of an exchange, then went on to a victory by scores of 99-90, 98-91 and 97-92.
Vera (23-9, 14 KO’s) lost his third straight fight and has now lost four of his last eight bouts.
The southpaw Monroe got a lot of work done with his left hand and used movement to keep Vera off-balance. Though the knockdown was of the flash variety, with the glove touching the canvas, Monroe landed bigger shots later in the round and had his man in trouble for the second half of the round.
