Billy Joe Saunders wants Eubank Jr. or Ryder in 2013

By Boxing News - 12/22/2012 - Comments

saunders3By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten British and Commonwealth middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (16-0, 10 KO’s) is hoping he can get a fight against either Chris Eubank Jr. (9-0, 4 KO’s) or John Ryder (13-0, 8 KO’s) in 2013. Saunders, 23, is coming off of a less than impressive 12 round unanimous decision over Nick Blackwell last Saturday night in London in a fight where Saunders took a lot of punishment, and looked stressed out in a major way from the constant pressure that Blackwell was putting him under.

Saunders said to Sky Ringside “I think John Ryder could be a good fight. Chris Eubank Jr. is a very arrogant man. I would love to fight him.”

I think Saunders needs to stay far away from Eubank Jr. because I can see him beating Saunders. The only thing that Eubank Jr. needs to ensure that he wins a decision over Saunders is to work a little on his power, and he’ll be able to dominate Saunders, because this guy isn’t the finished product. I can see Saunders stressing out if Eubank puts any kind of pressure on him.

I wasn’t all that surprised that Saunders looked so horrible against Blackwell, because I’d seen how worried Saunders looked in his fight with Bradley Pryce last June where Saunders looked like he was really going to pieces with the heat that Pryce was putting on him.

I don’t expect Eubank Jr. to fight Saunders yet because he’s being brought along kind of slowly because he didn’t have much of an amateur background to speak of and he badly needs to discover some power somewhere.

Saunders is going to have a problem getting beyond the domestic level because he’s not a big puncher, and he’s kind of robotic with his fighting style. He needs to loosen up and start facing some better opposition. He also needs some power, because he’s going to get beaten over and over again when he eventually starts to fight world class opposition.



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