By Scott Gilfoid: WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (23-0, 12 KOs) defends his title this Saturday night against challenger Artur Akavov (16-1,7 KOs) in what he hopes will lead to big fights in 2017. Saunders says he wants a fight against middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, and he would also like a fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez, who he feels he’s confident he can beat comfortably.
Saunders and Akavov will be fighting this Saturday night at the Lagoon Leisure Centre, in Paisley, Scotland.
During Thursday’s final press conference, Saunders kept saying that he’s not disrespecting the 30-year-old Akavov by talking about other fights he wants, but it appeared that he was doing just that by constantly blabbering about wanting to fight GGG and Canelo. Saunders needs to have his mind totally focused on the 5’9” southpaw Russian Akavov, because this is a fight that he could easily lose if he’s dialed in.
We saw how Saunders gassed out after six rounds in his last fight against Andy Lee last December, and how he gassed out in the second half of his fight against Chris Eubank Jr. in 2014. Speaking of Eubank Jr, Saunders says he was offered a 7-figure offer to fight him in a rematch, but he chose not to take it.
“It is what it is. I’m not overlooking him, but I belong at the elite level,” said Saunders at the final press conference on Thursday in speaking about Akavov. “I’ve been on the phone talking about big fights. We were in talks with Canelo, but he didn’t want no part of it yet, so I’ve got to get the job done on Saturday night before I look at the big fights. I will take care of him in style, and I’ll be moving on to bigger and better things.”
I wonder what the “bigger and better things” are for the 27-year-old Saunders. If he thinks he’s going to get a fight against Golovkin or Canelo in 2017, then he’s going to need to be ready to agree to the offers they give him. It’s not as if Saunders is a household name in the States. I don’t know what he’s looking for in terms of money for fights against Canelo and Golovkin, but he needs to make sure that he’s not pricing himself out for those fights.
Saunders asking for too much money would result in him having to fight guys like Max Bursak or Akavov. The thing is, the World Boxing Organization has reportedly said that Saunders will need to fight back to back mandatory challengers in his next two fights. Unless Canelo and Golden Boy push to become the #1 mandatory for Saunders’ WBO title, then it will mean that Saunders will be stuck having to fight the hard hitting #1 WBO challenger Avtandil Khurtsidze. That would be a real problem opponent for Saunders, because Khurtsidze is a high pressure type of opponent with excellent stamina. Khurtsidze does not get tired in the later rounds. So if Saunders gasses out like he did in the second half of his fights against Lee and Eubank Jr., then you can bet that Khurtsidze will take him out of there. That’s why it’s in Saunders’ best interest to make sure he takes the cash out fight against Canelo or Golovkin in his next fight after the Akavov bout.
In speaking about Chris Eubank Jr, Saunders said, “I beat him two years ago. I’ve got nothing to say. He was offered a seven-figure offer to fight me, and he turned it down, and turned down two million pounds to fight Golovkin, so he doesn’t want to fight no champions. He vacated his British title, so we’re in different leagues. I want to test myself to see how good I am. I want to go into the deep waters to see if I can swim. I was in talks with Canelo’s team. I was going to fight an American, an American journeyman, really, Rosado. That’s all he is. No disrespect to him. He’s lost 10 or 11 fights, whatever he’s lost. The reward was I go over there and fight him on their show and hey give me the Canelo fight, but they didn’t want to do that. They wanted me to go over there for him to have a chance to win the world title, and they would give it to Canelo. But obviously that didn’t happen. Hopefully in 2017, I’ll be a lot more busier. I know I will. My opinion is I’ll be Canelo comfortably. Golovkin is the best on the planet. Let me test myself. I want Golovkin. He keeps on how he wants my belt. I want his belts. So let’s get it on. No disrespect to Artur Akavov. I’m not overlooking him. I’ve got a job to do on Saturday. It’s his big chance obviously. If he wins, he’s in the big bucks and living the dream, so I can’t overlook him,” said Saunders.
I don’t see Saunders as having the talent to hang with Canelo. That’s a bad match-up for Saunders. It goes without saying that Saunders would be out of his league in a fight against Triple G. The bigger money fight for Saunders should be against Canelo if they face each other on HBO PPV in May. If Canelo chooses to fight Saunders next February on regular HBO, then the money available for that fight would likely be considerably less. There wouldn’t be the PPV cash for the fight.
Akavov doesn’t seem to be much of a puncher, and his hand speed is slow. I don’t think Akavov has got much of a chance of pulling off an upset on Saturday night against Saunders. If Akavov can pressure Saunders hard for the entire fight, he could wear him down and put him in a position where he might fall apart in the last four rounds. Akavov has knocked out seven out of his last eight opponents since 2013. Akavov seems to be sitting down on his punches a lot more than he did in the first two years of his career, but he’s also facing weak opponent. In Akavov’s last four fights. he’s beaten these guys: Todd Manuel (11-10-1), Freddy Lopez (9-2), Michel Mothmora (27-23) and David Makaadze (21-8-1).
