By Dan Ambrose: Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury believes WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (23-0, 12 KOs) will be IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) when/if they face each other in 2016 in a unification match.
Fury believes that if he was able to defeat Wladimir Klitschko in a fight where everyone doubted him, then Saunders will be able to do the same thing by beating Golovkin. Fury says he’s betting that the 26-year-old Saunders will get past Golovkin if this fight goes down.
Saunders is scheduled to fight next month against Max Bursak (32-4-1, 15 KOs) on April 30 at the Copper Box Arena in London. Golovkin will be defending his titles in April on the 23rd against Dominic Wade (18-0, 12 KOs) at the Forum in Inglewood, California.
If the two fighters get past their next fights, then there is a possibility they could face each other in the summer. It’s not a great chance the fight will happen because there are a lot of things that can get in the way of the fight transpiring starting with Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler saying he wants to match Golovkin against the winner of the Amir Khan vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight after the Wade fight.
It could take months for Loeffler to setup a fight between Golovkin and Canelo, and there would only be four months separating Canelo’s May 7 fight and September, which is when Canelo plans on fighting again in 2016.
“I think it’s a good fight for Billy [Saunders]. I fought Klitschko and he was the best in the division,” said Fury to IFL TV. “If I can beat Klitschko at 5/1 underdog then Billy can beat Golovkin, why not? Boxing is all about doing what the other fighter doesn’t like and I’m sure that the Tibbs will figure out a good game plan if the fight does happen and I’m sure Billy will win it. Me and Billy Joe Saunders are winners; it’s what we do.”
It was a good win for Fury to beat Wladimir last November in Dusseldorf. Germany. Fury outsmarted Klitschko over 12 rounds to win a decision in front of a huge pro-Klitschko crowd. Never the less, beating the 39-year-old Wladimir, who has clearly seen better days in his career, and Saunders beating a still young and in his prime 34-year-old Golovkin are two dramatically different things.
Golovkin is an aggressive fighter with a good chin, major punching power, and who isn’t afraid to get hit. Golovkin’s timing is still there, and he’s not afraid to pull the trigger with his punches. In contrast, Wladimir was almost 40 when he fought Fury, and very timid and not willing to throw punches. Wladimir could no pull the trigger on his shots. His accuracy was gone, and he looked like a shell of the fighter he was in the prime of his career or even before he hit his prime. Wladimir looked better as a first year novice than he did last November. Wladimir was able to throw punches in the early part of his career. He’s now clearly way over the hill. To be sure, it was a good victory for Fury in beating Wladimir, but we mustn’t kid ourselves in blowing the victory out of proportion. Fury beat a past his prime Wladimir, and he likely would have stood no chance at all against Wladimir if he had anything left. Golovkin is not 40-years-old, and he’s a better fighter than Wladimir could ever hope to be. If Golovkin were a heavyweight, he would be world’s better than Wladimir was in his prime. Saunders doesn’t match up with Golovkin, and the fight figures to be a one-sided beating that probably won’t even go four rounds.
“When I watch boxing there’s always two dead certs; even when we were in the England Amateurs and all that me and Billy were always dead certs to win,” said Fury. “I have no reason to disbelieve that he’s still a dead cert to win against anyone. If that fight does happen with Golovkin I will be backing Billy Joe Saunders in the bookies, no problem. I’d back him against Golovkin any day off the week,” said Fury.
Fury will get a chance to test his theory about Saunders beating Golovkin in the future if the two of them can keep winning. If the fight doesn’t take place in 2016, then surely it will happen in 2017. There’s too much money in the fight for it to not happen, and Golovkin wants the WBO belt that Saunders has in his possession.
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