Why we won’t see Golovkin-Saunders

By Gavin Duthie - 03/16/2016 - Comments

golovkinBy Gav Duthie: In a brief conversation involving Steve ‘Big Daddy’ Bunce and Frank Warren before the Flanagan-Matthews title fight the latter admitted that Billy Joe Saunders wanted to fight Gennady Golovkin next.

Last week it was announced that that Saunders will make a voluntary defence against Max Bursak for his newly acquired WBO middleweight title. Bursak is a solid fighter with good experience but is certainly not a name that will excite the fans.

Golovkin opportunity

Queensbury promotions supremo Frank Warren said they could have made the Golovkin fight in April 2016 but there were a few issues that he wasn’t happy about.

1. He wants the fight with Golovkin to be in the summer because it could fill a stadium.

Its widely accepted in boxing that its usually the management that halts the fights rather than the fighters themselves. This seems to be the case here as Saunders has expressed interest in the fight. It is absolutely correct that this could be a stadium fight and hopefully it can happen in the summer.

At present Billy Joe is following the tried and tested path.

British title
Lonsdale Belt (Providing there is worthwhile competition)
European Title
WBO International
Eliminator
WBO mandatory
WBO title holder
Many defences

WBO title holders Frank Warren has promoted

Chris Eubank
Joe Calzaghe
Liam Smith
Ricky Burns
Billy Joe Saunders
Paul Jones
Nathan Cleverly
Enzo Maccarinelli
Terry Flanagan
Scott Harrison

If you take the example of the Smith brothers, Paul, Callum, Liam and Stephen all are promoted by Matchroom apart from Liam who is with Warren. Liam is the first World Champion in the family despite arguably being less talented. If you are mandatory it becomes difficult to be avoided and opens the doors to title shots.

My problem is after his fighters win the titles. Liam Smith’s first defence was against a British fighter I had genuinely never heard of. Joe Calzaghe defended his title over 20 times with the many being average fighters somehow ranked with the WBO before we finally realized he was actually world class when he schooled Jeff Lacy.

Risk

Of course he doesn’t want Saunders to get hurt or lose but these days fans will not accept numerous average defences. In order to make the likes of Boxnation TV work fights against people like Golovkin is what sells. If Billy Joe wants the fight he should do everything he can to make it happen win or lose.



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