BoxRec

European super-bantamweight champion Rendall Munroe will defend his title against Simone Maludrottu in November.

Munroe will face the seasoned Italian in the Midlands with promoter Frank Maloney hoping to have the fight sanctioned as an eliminator for Toshiaki Nishioka's world title.

Leicester binman Munroe is ranked second by the WBC for Nishioka's title, while Maludrottu is ranked eighth in their latest listings.

Tough Sardinian Maludrottu has fought for the WBC bantamweight title and won the European title at the same weight in 2004 before making eight defences.

A familiar name in the UK, Maludrottu beat both Damaen Kelly and Ian Napa while holding the European title before relinquishing the belt.

Maludrottu lost his world title challenge with a points defeat to Hozumi Hasegawa in Japan in January last year, and now promises to be Munroe's biggest challenge to date.

Munroe (19-1) has crept into the world title picture following a shock win against Kiko Martinez won him the European title, with four successful defences including a re-match with the Spaniard in February thisarticle is frm sky sports
This should be a tough test for rendall..i can see him winning a close decision..what's your views?..this should be a wbc title eliminator in my opinion

gemmell wrote: A familiar name in the UK, Maludrottu beat both Damaen Kelly and Ian Napa while holding the European title before relinquishing the belt.

He did beat Napa, but the 1st time he fought Kelly he lost by 8 or so rounds.. It was in Belfast, Northern Ireland and imo it was a Massive shock that he got the Decision, the second fight i didnt see but he stoped Kelly in 3 rounds..

Monroe will have to much skill for him

hopefully will get eliminator status but do not understand why purse bids have not been called for munroe in full eliminator.

The Kelly fight was a robbery and the wide scores made it even worse.

steve689 wrote:The Kelly fight was a robbery and the wide scores made it even worse.

The return left no doubt

This is the step up Munroe needs, Maludrottu isn't a fantastic fighter but is a real improvement from the likes of Trotta and Nettey and will force Munroe to be at his best if he's to be victorious.

I can see this being a very close fight with Munroe just edging it, however if the scoring is going to be anything like the Kelly fight he'll need a stoppage win.

I think it would be in Munroe's best interests not to have this as an eliminator, there's still a massive difference between Maludrottu and Nishioka and Munroe will need to fight a level of fighter in between those two to be ready for a World title shot should he ever get one.

Think Munroe will outpoint Maludrottu but god help him if he comes up against Nishioka who is a brillant Super Bantamweight and could easily knock Munroe out. Way out of your league Munroe, keep fighting your Ghanian journeymen!

chris s wrote:

steve689 wrote:The Kelly fight was a robbery and the wide scores made it even worse.

The return left no doubt

Quite true.

I think Munroe by a UD, should be a good fight hopefully Munroe goes on for a crack at a world title after, if successful, still fancy his chances if he ever got to face Dunne !

chris s wrote:

steve689 wrote:The Kelly fight was a robbery and the wide scores made it even worse.

The return left no doubt

The first fight left no doubt also!

Do you think Maludrottu won the first bout fair and square Stu?

Kelly was robbed in the first fight, however I can't believe how he fell apart in the rematch - He was a red hot favourite in my book, but I guess father time caught up with him.

steve689 wrote:Do you think Maludrottu won the first bout fair and square Stu?

I think Stu's insinuating Kelly won so damn clearly the first time that there was no doubt who the victor really was(Kelly) despite the scores the judges gave.

BigEars wrote:

steve689 wrote:Do you think Maludrottu won the first bout fair and square Stu?

I think Stu's insinuating Kelly won so damn clearly the first time that there was no doubt who the victor really was(Kelly) despite the scores the judges gave.

Yeah, had the judges gone the correct way - there wouldn't have even been a rematch ordered or anything. Its the single worst decision I have ever seen.