Matt Korobov vs. Billy Joe Saunders is in the works for November 22nd

By Boxing News - 09/08/2014 - Comments

saunders56235By Scott Gilfoid: A fight between #1 WBO Matt Korobov (24-0, 14 KOs) and #2 WBO Billy Joe Saunders (20-0, 11 KOs) is reportedly in the works for November 22nd to fight for the vacant WBA middleweight title that was recently vacated by Peter Quillin.

Top Rank, the promoters for Korobov, are working with Saunders’ promoter Frank Warren to setup the fight. The idea is to have the Korobov-Saunders fight take place on the undercard of the November 22nd fight between Tyson Fury and Dereck Chisora at the ExCel Arena in London, UK.

It’s still too early to tell at this time whether the World Boxing Organization will bless the Saunders-Korobov fight as being for the vacant WBO title. They may have some other fighter or fighters in mind for the fight. Ideally, the WBO title should be on the line between the #1 and #2 guys, but things are strange in boxing and you frequently see guys ranked 8 and below fighting for vacant titles.

Quillin was set to defend his WBO title against Korobov on November 1st after Roc Nation Sports won the purse bid with a huge bid. Quillin was going to make a career-high payday of $1.4 million for the fight, which is a number that he may never see in his career for a single fight, but he instead vacated the WBO belt.

Quillin’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions is talking about wanting to put Quillin in with WBA middleweight title Daniel Jacobs, and De La Hoya is hoping that Quillin will be able to get $1.4 million or more for the fight. For that to happen, Showtime is going to see value in a Quillin-Jacobs fight as in huge ratings.

“We’re talking with Frank Warren about doing the fight over in England on the Fury-Chisora card,” said Arum to RingTV.com. “That would be against the Irish guy who is number two, Billy Saunders. We’re negotiating that with Frank, who is Saunders’ promoter.”

Saunders is coming off of an 8th round stoppage win over Emanuele Blandamura last July. Saunders didn’t look that good in that fight. He didn’t look good in his fight before that against John Ryder last year in September. I thought Ryder won that fight.

Korobov has the power to give Saunders all kinds of problems if this fight comes off. Saunders is more of a speed guy than a slugger, and it’s going to be interesting to see what happens when he fights a technical fighter with power like Korobov. If Ryder was good enough to beat Saunders then you’ve got to give Korobov an excellent chance of beating him as well.



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