By Scott Gilfoid: Billy Joe Saunders is going to need to deal with a MASSIVE pressure from Gennady ‘GGG” Golovkin all night long, and the Kazakhstan fighter’s trainer, the highly respected Abel Sanchez, has doubts whether he’ll be able to do that. However, Sanchez has doubts whether Saunders (26-0, 12 KOs) will even get to that point where he faces Triple G, because he thinks he’ll get greedy for money and price himself out by asking for $12 million for the fight, which he feels is a totally absurd number.
Sanchez has heard of Saunders’ recent request of $6 million for a title defense against Daniel Jacobs in the States, and he laughs at that request, seeing it as a way for Saunders to price himself out of the fight.
Sanchez says that if his fighter IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) successfully defends his title against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) in their rematch on May 5 on HBO pay-per-view, GGG’s promoter Tom Loeffler will possibly attempt to negotiate a unification fight against WBO 160 lb. champion Saunders for all 4 middleweight titles to be on the line. But if Saunders starts talking crazy numbers in wanting huge money for the Golovkin fight, they’ll move on quickly to other fights.
Sanchez says there’s way for fighters to not take a fight, and one of the ways is to price themselves out. Saunders appears to have done a fine job of that by asking for $6M for the Jacobs fight. Will Saunders do that for a unification fight with Golovkin? Only time will tell.
”I think it’s a good fight. It’s easy to look good against Lemieux for Saunders, because Lemieux is more of a static, more of a standing still guy,” Sanchez said to Behind The Gloves. ”It’s easy to look great against a guy that’s not fighting back. When you get an elite fighter as Golovkin is, we’ll see what he’s able to do. I don’t think he’ll be able to handle Golovkin’s pressure and power, but we’ll see. If he’s willing to fight the fight, and he’s willing to be reasonable, then the fight can be made,” Sanchez said.
For all intents and purposes, Saunders had a punching bag in front of him in his December 16th fight against David Lemieux in their fight on HBO Boxing last year in Quebec. Lemieux was totally inept on the night. Lemieux looked heavy around the midsection, as if he’d not trained hard enough for the fight. It was either that or Lemieux rehydrated too much. Lemieux looked a lot bigger than in his previous fights, so he might not have had the best training camp for the Saunders fight. It would be a different story if Saunders faces GGG. He’ll be dealing with a guy that is in excellent shape, and who will be talking him down all night long, hitting him with heavy shots to the bread basket and head.
I hate to say it but Saunders tends to get tired when he’s put under any kind of pressure. He’s absolutely exhausted by round 6, and it’s downhill from there. A fight between Golovkin and Saunders could play out just like GGG and Kell Brook. In that fight, Brook looked good for the first 2 rounds, but the contest changed once Golovkin started putting nonstop pressure on him from round 3. There was a missed knockdown of Brook in round 3 from a left hook from Golovkin that flattened him. Brook looked terrified after that knockdown. It was all running from that point from Brook, who was only thinking survival. Saunders might play the same game. He’ll be cocky for the first 2 rounds, but after Golovkin starts pressuring him, we’ll see him go into a full scale retreat until the white flag of surrender is waved by his trainer. That’s the way Gilfoid sees it.
”We’ll see how bad he wants it when it comes down to negotiating after this fight is over with on May the 5th and we’re successful,” Sanchez said. ”We’ll see how much he wants it. If he doesn’t want it, I’m sure Tom Loeffler is not going to waste his time with the guy that really doesn’t want the fight. I think it’s a great fight. If he’s in the kind of physical and mental shape he will be in because he’s fighting Golovkin,” Sanchez said.
Saunders is probably going to be mouthing off something fierce after the dust settles from the second Golovkin vs. Canelo fight on May the 5th. If Saunders is level-headed for the money he wants in the Golovkin fight, then we could see that match next by September or October. Personally, I think Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions won’t want to let Golovkin get away without trying to set up a third fight between them in September on HBO PPV. There’s too much green stuff available for them not to make a third fight. Besides, if Golovkin destroys Canelo on May 5th, Golden Boy will be in the position where they’ll be forced to make a trilogy fight in order to help their fighter save face with the boxing public.
Even if Canelo loses to Golovkin again, he’ll come out ahead if he puts up a good fight in the process of losing. I think the second between the two fighters on May 5th will go badly for Canelo. Golovkin is going to put some serious heat on Canelo and make him fall apart physically from the pressure. It’s rare that a fighter can handle the pressure that Golovkin puts them under. Canelo doesn’t seem to react well at all to the fast pace that Golovkin puts on him. It’s probably going to be much, much worse for Canelo in the rematch with Triple G in terms of the fight being fought at fast pace.
Saunders can expect similar treat from Golovkin. It’ll be much more pressure from Golovkin, because the 28-year-old Saunders will probably be running for the hills once he gets hit hard for the first time in the fight. Saunders will realize at that moment that he bit off more than he bargained for in taking on Golovkin. At that point, the track shoes will be slipped on by Saunders, and he’ll start with the mad dash around the ring. I see it being one of those retreats where Saunders loses his senses completely, and starts fighting in a total erratic fashion. Some fighters can handle the heat of battle without going to pieces mentally. I don’t picture Saunders as being that type. I see him as the type that crumbles mentally, and winds up getting taken out quickly. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am. I still remember how Saunders fell apart in the second half of his fights against Chris Eubank Jr. and Andy Lee.