Saunders’ next fight to be announced soon

By Boxing News - 12/22/2017 - Comments

Image: Saunders’ next fight to be announced soon

By Jeff Aranow: Promoter Frank Warren revealed at this week’s press conference that he plans on announcing Billy Joe Saunders’ next opponent for the spring. Warren wants Saunders (26-0, 12 KOs) to take advantage of the success from his last fight against David Lemieux.

Saunders defended his WBO middleweight title successfully in beating Lemieux (38-4, 33 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision in his own hometown, and the fight was not close.

Saunders, 28, says he would like to move up to super middleweight and beat newly crowned IBF 168 lb. champion Caleb Truax and then vacate the title immediately and come back down to 160 to face the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin in the second half of 2018. It’s a risky plan if Saunders uses it, as he would be dealing with the weight issues of having to take all the weight off that he puts on for the Truax fight. There’s also risk involved in getting hit by someone with the kind of power that Truax possesses.

“Bill will be out in the spring. We’re working on a few opponents,” said Warren in discussing when Saunders will be fighting again. ”We’ll be making an announcement on his opponent in the next week or so just after Christmas. Hopefully that will be in London. It won’t be Canelo. It won’t be Golovkin. I believe they’re signed for the 5th of May. Bill has to keep winning. He’s got to capitalize on what he’s done,” said Warren.

There’s no chance that Saunders (26-0, 12 KOs) will be fighting Canelo or Golovkin in his fight in the spring. A fight against one of them, if it does happen, it will take place in late 2018 or in 2019. Saunders’ next fight will be against one of the contenders in the middleweight division, and likely a non-threat to him. Warren isn’t giving any hints, but you have to believe that someone like Gary O’Sullivan is at the top of the list for his next fight. O’Sullivan is coming off of an impressive stoppage win last Saturday against Antoine Douglas pm the Saunders-Lemieux undercard at the Place Bell Arena in Laval, Quebec, Canada. The fight was televised in the U.S on HBO Boxing, so Saunders would be increasing his popularity to some extent if he were to face O’Sullivan and beat him. Saunders already defeated O’Sullivan quite easily in 2013, beating him by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision. The casual boxing fans in the U.S will not have seen that fight or known about it.

These are the likely options for Saunders’ next fight in the spring:

• Gary O’Sullivan

• Curtis Stevens

• Jason Quigley

• Martin Murray

• Tommy Langford

• Alantez Fox

• Luis Arias

• Hassan N’Dam

Saunders won’t be fighting Daniel Jacobs. Saunders had little good to say about Jacobs at his press conference this week. Judging by Saunders’ comments, he not only won’t be fighting Jacobs in the spring, but he’ll never fight him. There’s no interest in that fight from Saunders. It’s a dangerous fight for Saunders. Jacobs has the size, power and the wheels to negate a lot of what Saunders does inside the ring. If Jacobs beats Saunders, he could undo all the good that came from his win over Lemieux.

”If Canelo and Golovkin don’t fight him, it’s for a reason,” said Warren. ”The reason is the performance. Have they got the balls to get in there with someone who brings something different? Bill could come out of this sport a very wealthy man. If he can win fights like that, he can go to another level,” said Warren.

If Saunders fails to get Canelo or Golovkin to fight him, it’ll be for the same reason that Erislandy Lara has had little luck in getting those guys to fight him. Lara did get one fight with Canelo in 2014, but he spent most of the fight moving around the ring, fighting defensively. That performance was enough to make Canelo not want to fight him again. Golovkin has no desire for a fight with Lara as well, and you must assume it’s because of his negative fighting style. If Canelo and GGG opt not to fight Saunders, it’s because they don’t want to face someone that is going to be in motion for 12 rounds. They want to fight someone that will be in the pocket for them to land shots. Saunders does have the ability to attract the top contenders in the division. Jacobs wants a fight against him, and Demetrius Andrade and Jermall Charlo would likely jump at the chance to fight Saunders. Those are dangerous guys though. They’re not limited short guys with bad wheels like Lemieux. Charlo, Andrade and Jacobs can all move around the ring, and they’ve got more size than Saunders. It’s one thing beating Lemieux, but it would be a much different issue for Saunders to have to deal with those type of fighters. They’re not made to order for Saunders the way Lemieux is.

”If it’s Canelo, you’ve got to go to the States, because he’s an attraction and big pay-per-view over there,” said Warren. ”With Golovkin, you’ve got a chance [to bring him over to the UK to fight Saunders]. That’s being realistic. I just think Canelo won’t want to fight Bill. I really don’t,” said Warren.

It’s a given that Canelo won’t agree to come over to the UK to fight Saunders. That’s not ever happening. Golden Boy Promotions would never put their flagship fighter Canelo in a situation where he could potentially lose a controversial decision by fighting in another fighter’s home turf. You can argue that Golovkin won’t make that trip to the UK for against Saunders either. After the way Golovkin’s fight was scored against Kell Brook in 2016, it’s not realistic to assume that he’ll want to come back to the UK to fight Saunders. Golovkin stopped Brook in the 5th round in their fight in September 2016 in London, UK. At the time of the stoppage, 1 judge had Brook beating Golovkin 3 rounds to 1. The other 2 judges had it scored 2-2 after 4 rounds. Those scores were far off from the scoring that many boxing fan had in the U.S for the Golovkin-Brook fight. They had Golovkin winning 3 rounds to 1. If Saunders to fight Golovkin, he’ll probably need to come over to the U.S. It’s unlikely that Golovkin will want to risk losing to Saunders as a result of a hometown decision.