Billy Joe Saunders: I believe I can beat Peter Quillin

By Boxing News - 02/07/2015 - Comments

saunders5533By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBO 160lb contender Billy Joe Saunders agreed to step aside in order to let American talent Peter Quillin (31-0, 22 KOs) challenge WBO middleweight belt holder Andy Lee (34-2, 24 KOs) for his WBO strap on April 11th. Saunders is said to have gotten a six-figure payment to step aside so that the 31-year-old Quillin could challenge for Lee’s title belt.

Saunders sees the move as potentially setting up a fight between him and Lee later on this year with Lee’s WBO belt being up for grabs in the fight.

A Lee vs. Saunders fight would give both of these UK fighters a good payday. However, the chances of the fight happening are probably very, very low, given that Lee will need to beat Quillin first for the bout to take place. Once Lee loses his WBO middleweight title, then the interest in a Lee-Saunders fight drops completely off the map. Lee’s WBO title has to be on the line in order to give meaning to a Lee vs. Saunders fight.

“I want to prove that I’m the best in the world and I believe that I can beat Lee or Quillin right now,” Saunders said via RingTV.com.

Lee pulled off a big upset in his last fight in halting the normally steel-chinned Mat Korobov in the 6th round last November to capture the vacant World Boxing Organization middleweight title.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=somtB-cXbDE

Before that fight took place, Quillin vacated the WBO title. He missed out on a nice little $1.4 million payday, but he realized that he could make the same kind of money in his next fight, which is what we’re seeing here with him now fighting Lee for the chance to win back his WBO title.

“It [Lee vs. Saunders] needs to be held on the biggest stage and that’s a football stadium. The fight will only get bigger and bigger. So the timing needs to be right and it needs to wait until the summer,” Saunders said.

I think Saunders really shouldn’t get his hopes up for the Lee fight like this, because it’s something that really has very little chance of happening. I think Lee is fun to watch sometimes due to his fights having dramatic endings with him either getting knocked out or him knocking his opponents out, but I see Quillin as having too much talent for Lee to deal with.

With the way Saunders is talking, he reminds me of someone buying lottery tickets with the hopes of winning. I just don’t see it happening. Lee is going to go out there against Quillin and likely lose every round like he was in his last two fights until Quillin sparks him out. That’s just the way I see it.

The Lee-Quillin fight will be on the undercard of the Lamont Peterson vs. Danny Garcia catch-weight fight, possibly at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The good news for Saunders is that he’s going to get a guaranteed world title shot against the winner of the Lee-Quillin fight. The bad news is that he’s probably going to be facing Quillin, and he’ll likely end up getting knocked out in the fight.



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