By Scott Gilfoid: WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (23-0, 12 KOs) says he wants to fight a unification match against IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) in a fight that would take place in July on the undercard of the Tyson Fury vs. Wladimir Klitschko undercard.
Saunders has a fight scheduled next month against #11 WBO Max Bursak (32-4-1, 15 KOs) on April 30 at the Copper Box Arena in London, UK. Saunders would need to win that fight before he can get to a fight against Golovkin in July, Also, Golovkin has a fight next month on April 23 against his IBF mandatory challenger Dominic Wade (18-0, 12 KOs) at the Forum in Inglewood, California.
“I’ll fight Golovkin in July,” Saunders said to IFL TV. “That’s who I want. Golovkin in July, yeah. Tyson Fury-Klitachko and me and Golovkin where George Groves boxed Froch at Wembley Stadium,” said Saunders.
I don’t think that Golovkin sees himself as a undercard level fighter at this point. I don’t think it’s a doable fight for that card because Golovkin has graduated to fighting in main events at this point in his career.
For Golovkin to elect to fight on an undercard would be a demotion for him, and I don’t see it as something that he would entertain right now. Saunders might have no problems fighting on an undercard, but I think Golovkin wouldn’t be too eager to do that.
That doesn’t mean that the Golovkin vs. Saunders fight can’t happen still. I just think it’s not too realistic to think that the fight would take place on the undercard of Fury vs. Klitschko.
Saunders might not be able to get the Golovkin fight this year because Golovkin wants to face Saul “Canelo” Alvarez so that he can pick up his highly prestigious WBC middleweight belt. The WBO belt is obviously valuable too, but I get the impression that Golovkin wants the WBC title more right now. Saunders had a chance to fight Golovkin in April, but he blew it and didn’t take the fight when it was offered to him.
Saunders has plenty of options available to him if he doesn’t get the Golovkin fight this year. Saunders can face either WBA middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs in July. Jacobs already said that he doesn’t have a fight scheduled right now, and he wants Saunders to sign the contract for the fight.
Saunders talked pretty big on Twitter, but will he put his money where his mouth is and sign the contract to fight the talented Jacobs? My guess is no. I think Saunders will elect to stay far, far away from the hard-hitting American.
If Saunders doesn’t choose to fight Jacobs, then he can always look to fight Chris Eubank Jr. in a rematch. Eubank Jr. defeated British middleweight champion Nick Blackwell last Saturday night by a 10th round stoppage, and Eubank Jr. said after the fight that he wants to fight Saunders now so he can try to avenge his loss. Saunders said that he feels that Eubank Jr. needs to do more to earn a rematch by fighting a better class of opponents.
In looking at the guys that Eubank Jr. has been fighting recently, I don’t see that happening. Eubank Jr. has had three consecutive soft jobs since his loss to Saunders in 2014. In his last three fights, Eubank Jr. has beaten Tony Jeter, Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan and Nick Blackwell. If Saunders is waiting for Eubank Jr. to start facing high quality opposition, he could be waiting for a long, long time.
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