By Scott Gilfoid: Well, it looks like you can add Chis Eubank Jr’s name to the list of fighters that WBO middleweight belt holder Billy Joe Saunders won’t be fighting anytime soon. Saunders is offering Eubank Jr. a small 80-20 revenue split for a rematch between them, and it looks like he’s not going to be budging from that offer.
Saunders recently turned down fights against Gabriel Rosado, Willie Monroe Jr. and Curtis Stevens for fights on the undercard of Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Liam Smith card on September 17, and it’s unclear when he’ll finally get around to making his first defense of his World Boxing Organization 160lb title.
It’s been eight months since Saunders won his WBO title with a narrow 12 round majority decision win over Andy Lee last December. If Saunders doesn’t defend his title soon, he’s going to get stripped by the WBO for failing to defend it for an entire year. It’s unclear whether the WBO will wait until December to pull the trigger on stripping Saunders of his belt or if they’ll make the move ahead of time if it looks like he’s got no intention of defending his belt before then.
“You want to get a few facts right. If you want an 80%-20% split then speak to my manager and my promoter,” said Saunders to Chris Eubank Sr. via skysports.com. “That split is in my favor because I’m the champion, I’ve already beaten you and you’re a loser in my eyes. I’ve moving on to bigger and better things. I’m certainly looking at the big fights – including Golovkin – in the next couple.”
I’d be very surprised if Saunders chooses to fight Gennady Golovkin. I mean, he already had the chance to fight Golovkin already but nothing came of it. Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy were interested in matching him up against Saunders in December, bnut they wanted him to fight on the undercard of Canelo-Smith on September 17 in order to have the boxing fans in the United States see him before matching Canelo against him in December. With Saunders reportedly turning down the guys that was offered to him by Golden Boy, it doesn’t look like Canelo will be fighting him in December.
Canelo could still take the fight, but I think it won’t be a good move on his part because the casual boxing fans in America don’t have a clue who Saunders is. Canelo can’t get bogged down fighting obscure guys over and over again, because those fights don’t sell. Canelo has to fight guys that the U.S public has heard of otherwise he’s short changing himself.
“He’s only British champion. Other people would jump at the chance to earn that sort of that money and he turned it down twice – let alone the Gennady Golovkin fight, where he probably would have earned a million quid,” said Saunders.
If Saunders wants an opponent that he can give a small split of the money, then he’s going to need to look to find a bottom feeder in the WBO’s rankings. This means he’ll need to fight someone that few fans will have heard of before from the UK. I don’t if that’s a smart thing for Saunders to do by him selecting little known fighters to milk his title against, because he’s not going to become a big star in the UK by fighting the bottom feeders.
At the same time, Saunders doesn’t have the kind of talent that will enable him to keep his WBO title for any length of time. As such, Saunders might be able to milk his WBO title with a couple of soft job, but once he fights a good contender like Avtandil Khurtsidze or Ryota Murata, he’s likely going to lose his WBO title. I think Saunders is better off cashing out now with one big payday against Golovkin or Saunders rather than taking two small paydays against beatable bottom feeders and then getting whipped when he’s forced to fight Khurtsidze or Murata and losing his WBO title. It’s too bad Saunders made the blow it move by not taking the fight with Rosado, Stevens or Willie Monroe Jr. on the Canelo vs. Smith card, because that would have been a great way for him to get the Canelo fight in December.