By Jeff Aranow: Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions says WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders is an option for his fighter IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin if he can’t get the winner of the May 7 fight between WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Amir Khan.
That’s the first priority for Golovkin because he wants the fight against the winner of the Canelo vs. Khan fight so that he has a chance to win the WBC 160lb title inside the ring rather than picking it up from the World Boxing Council stripping Canelo or Khan of the WBC belt for them having failed to face Golovkin.
“We would still be very interested in a fight there with Saunders,” Loeffler said to skysports.com. “If [Canelo or Khan] doesn’t happen, for whatever reason, then Saunders would be at the top of our list to unify the middleweight division. Gennady is the type of fighter that doesn’t care where he fights.”
Saunders wants a fight against Golovkin in the UK at Wembley Stadium in London during the summer. He figures the fight will bring in a huge audience if they stage the fight at Wembley during the summer months.
Golovkin was very interested in fighting Saunders in a unification fight, but he wanted the fight to take place in April instead of in the summer. April would have been perfect for Golovkin to fight Saunders.
Saunders didn’t want the fight at that time, and is instead defending his WBO title against voluntary challenger Max Bursak on April 30 at the Copper Box Arena in London. With Saunders not willing to fight Golovkin in April, Golovkin is now defending his titles against unbeaten #3 IBF mandatory challenger Dominic Wade (18-0, 12 KOs) on April 23 at the Forum in Inglewood, California.
“If the stars align, I could see a scenario where Gennady fights two premiere UK fighters in 2016, who would both be world champions by that point,” said Loeffler.
It’s extremely remote that there will be two UK fights for Golovkin in 2016. For that to happen, Amir Khan will need to beat Canelo, and that’s not something that probable given Canelo’s weight and power advantage.
Khan chose not to push for a rehydration clause to limit the amount of weight that Canelo can put back on after he rehydrates following the weigh-in. Khan will very likely be fighting a very heavy Canelo on May 7, and the weight more than anything will win the fight for Canelo.
Saunders will likely get his chance to fight Golovkin in the summer of 2017 if he’s still interested in fighting him by then. Saunders can make the Golovkin fight bigger if he faces a good contender later this year that can really test him and build his market value. Fighting Max Bursak isn’t going to help build a fight against Golovkin.
“He relishes the prospect of hitting anyone’s chin,” said Loeffler about Golovkin. “He’s had 21 knockouts in a row and a lot of those guys had never been stopped before. It’s a streak we look forward to continuing.”
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