Exclusive: Seanie Monaghan Talks Potential Title Shot If He Beats Sullivan Barrera

After boxing for nearly 20 years, Seanie Monaghan is still searching for a world title, but a win over Sullivan Barrera could put him on the verge of getting that coveted title shot.

In a recent media call, Monaghan was asked by Fightful on what a win over the former title challenger in November would do for his career. Monaghan, ranked highly by several governing bodies at light heavyweight, simply responded by saying that he should be ranked high enough to get a title opportunity.

“Absolutely. As far as rankings go, you see guys who aren’t even ranked get a title fight. It’s kind of all about being in the right place at the right time. But being ranked in the top five in the world and getting a big signature win against a guy like Barrera has to move my career forward in the right direction,” Monaghan said.

By the time Monaghan enters the ring against Barrera, it would have been almost one calendar year since he last fought. That would be the longest break between fights in Monaghan’s career, but when asked about any concerns about ring rust, the 37-year-old Monaghan said that isn’t bothering him at all since he’s been training for a number of fights that have fallen apart in that long break. 

“No, we’ve done multiple training camps for fights that all fell through. I was supposed to fight (Eleider) Alvarez in Canada, that kind of all fell apart, and he got a fight with (Sergey) Kovalev. I was supposed to fight Barrera in the summer, and that fell apart. I was supposed to fight Anthony Yarde in England, and that ended up falling apart, and now I’m back with Barrera. I’ve been in the gym the whole time and I’ve improved a lot this year. My one loss made me re-evaluate myself and re-evaluate my weaknesses and work on them. I’m coming out as the best possible version of myself I’ve ever been,” Monaghan said. 

One such fight that previously fell apart was against Barrera earlier this year. Barrera suffered an eye injury during training which forced the fight to be postponed. Now that Barrera is fully healthy, the fight will take place on November 3 and it will headline a boxing card streamed exclusively on Facebook.