Light heavyweight Sean Monaghan, a local draw in New York who recently signed with Top Rank, will go west on October 12, as he faces Anthony Caputo Smith in what we can only hope is the opening bout of the Bradley vs Marquez pay-per-view that night from HBO.
Monaghan (18-0, 11 KO) is a 31-year-old fighter, long in the tooth for a prospect, with only three 10-round fights to his credit, and only once has he gone beyond eight rounds. For a local fighter on the NY scene, Monaghan is understandably popular -- he's Irish-American, he's from the area, and he's a fighter who gives a show whenever he possibly can, even if it means getting cracked by lesser opponents. He's somewhat reminiscent of John Duddy.
Like Duddy, there appear to be serious limitations to how far he can really go, but Top Rank signing him was a good business move for their East Coast shows. Sending him to Vegas is mostly about getting him some exposure on a big PPV event, which should be OK and all, but at the same time, people paying $60-70 for a pay-per-view boxing show often rightly feel entitled to something better than what really amounts to a decent club fight between Monaghan and 28-year-old Caputo Smith (14-1, 10 KO), who was stopped in two by Kevin Engel just two fights ago.
Just for some reference, BoxRec considers Monaghan the 55th best light heavyweight in the world, while Caputo-Smith is ranked 99th at the moment.
So what grade do you give this as a major PPV undercard fight? A D-minus or F?