Jonathan Montrel squares off with Marqus Bates for Super Lightweight title

No boxer enters a fight imagining he’ll get stopped in the first round, especially if he’s going in undefeated.

But that’s exactly what happened to super lightweight Jonathan Montrel of New Orleans via TKO less than two minutes in against Greg Outlaw back in March, knocked down by what his trainer calls “a lucky shot.”

“I should have worked my jab a little more,” said Montrel, who was 12-0 at the time. “The crazy thing about it was that it didn’t even hurt.

“I got back up, but I stumbled a little bit and I guess the referee saw something in his eyes he didn’t like, so he stopped it. That’s boxing.”

Montrel hasn’t let that defeat deter or discourage him, though.

In June, Montrel won a bounce-back bout against veteran Humberto Martinez in Cartagena, Columbia, and Saturday he will face Marqus Bates (11-4, 8 KO) for the American Boxing Federation USA Super Lightweight title at the Lowell Municipal Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts. The bout is scheduled for eight rounds and will stream on reyesboxingtv.com.

A victory would bring about a rematch against Outlaw early next year.

“I just want to show that getting beat once isn’t going to hold me back,” Montrel said. “I’d rather be 14-0, but I’m 13-1.

“I’ve never been out of the gym, and I feel like I’m right back on track. My career is really still just getting started.”

Still, there’s a sense of urgency for Montrel, who didn’t turn pro until 2018 when he was 28, and, now at 32, is only a few months younger than childhood friend Regis Prograis who is fighting for the WBC version of the 140-pound title next month.

“Maybe I’ll be able to challenge him some day,” Montrel said. “Man, think of what that would do for the city.

“We’d sell out the Superdome.”

But first things first.

In Bates, Montrel is facing a 36-year-old who had had only 14 fights since turning pro in 2016, but who has won his last four bouts, three by knockout, and holds the ABF super lightweight title.

“This is a long, skillful guy with a great left hook,” said Chase Dixon, Montrel’s trainer. “But I’ve got the better fighter.

“Skill-wise, in every category we’re better, and what John-Boy lacks in skill, he makes up in work ethic. I believe we’ll stop him in the middle rounds.”

The Martinez bout proved that. Against a fighter with 47 pro bouts, many of them on a high level in South America, albeit the last five losses, Montrel scored a third-round knockout, the eighth of his career.

“We went down there, just the two of us,” Dixon said. “John-Boy got his a few times early because this was a tough guy we were going against.

“But he eventually broke through his defense and knocked him out. That’s just what I expected.”

If Montrel defeats Bates, he will be meeting Outlaw, who next fights Nov. 19 against Wilfrido Buelvas, it will be on Outlaw’s home turf in Washington.

“I don’t care if we’re fighting in his living room,” Montrel said. “I just want another shot at him.”