By Jeff Aranow: Tyson Fury saw enough of Billy Joe Saunders’ fight with David Lemieux last Saturday night believe that he’ll be too quick, skilled and elusive for the unbeaten IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) to beat him if the two champions face each other in 2018.
Fury sees Saunders (26-0, 12 KOs) as having a near unbeatable style of fighting that would give the 35-year-old Golovkin fits.
Saunders appeared to win every round last Saturday night in beating Lemieux (38-4, 33 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision at the Place Bell in Laval, Quebec, Canada. After the fight, Saunders called out Golovkin and Saul Canelo Alvarez while still inside the ring. Saunders said he doubts Golovkin will want to fight him now that he’s in shape.
Golovkin hasn’t responded to Saunders calling. One reason for that is he’s been doing it for over a year. Saunders’ fight with Lemieux being televised on HBO in the U.S last Saturday gave him a soap box to stand on to let the U.S boxing fans know that he wants to fight GGG.
“I’m very confident,” said Tyson Fury to IFL TV, when asked if Saunders can beat Golovkin. “What is he going to do, chase him around the ring trying to land 1 big punch like that guy [Lemieux]. That style is almost impregnable. The only way to beat someone like that is to knock them out with one punch, because you’re not going to win, are you? It’s very awkward, being a southpaw too. The movement was excellent, and the fitness was very, very hard to beat,” said Fury in talking about Saunders.
Saunders was mostly jabbing Lemieux. If that’s going to be Saunders’ plan to beat Golovkin, he might come up short. Golovkin has the better jab by far. Saunders will need to do more than throw jabs to beat Golovkin, because that’s not a winning game plan. There will need to be more to Saunders’ game than simply circling the ring, jabbing and throwing pot-shots against Golovkin for 12 rounds. Golovkin cuts off the ring well, and he’s not going to head hunt the way Lemieux did. He’ll target Saunders’ body, and won’t miss with his shots down there.
“Canelo and Triple G are different animals to David Lemieux, as we saw when they fought,” said Fury to secondsout.com. “Billy Joe Saunders vs. Golovkin; Golovkin would try and pressure Billy Joe similar to him [Lemieux], but with better footwork, better movement and feints. But with his awkward southpaw style, and his faster hands, I think he gives him trouble very much so. I think Golovkin would go into this fight feeling he needs a knockout. I think it would be a cat and mouse job again, the same kind of thing,” said Fury in saying Golovkin would fight Saunders just like Lemieux did.
It sounds like it would be an ugly fight between Saunders and Golovkin by the description by Fury. A cat and mouse fight would involve Golovkin chasing Saunders around the ring in the same way Lemieux did. That’s not a great fight.
Golovkin hasn’t said whether he’ll take the Saunders fight. Golovkin said in the past that he wants to fight for Saunders’ WBO middleweight title, but it’s unclear whether he’s still interested in that match. It might be too difficult to put together, especially now that Saunders has beaten Lemieux. He could price himself out of the fight.