By Charles Brun: Billy Joe Saunders is scheduled on Boxrec to be defending his WBO super middleweight title against little known Marcelo Esteban Cocere next month on the undercard of KSI vs Logan Paul II at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Saunders’ match against Cocere won’t be shown on the pay-per-view portion of the Sky Box Office card.
With this level of opponent, it’s not surprising why Saunders is fighting on the undercard of KSI-Logan Paul 2.
Saunders-Cocere not official yet
Saunders vs. Esteban Cocere hasn’t been made official yet, but if it does, it’s going to let to a lot of upset boxing fans. The WBO recently rejected Hearn’s choice of American fighter Denis Douglin (22-6, 14 KOs), who wasn’t ranked in the top 15, and had lost 2 out of his last 4 fights. But Douglin looks like a world beater in comparison to the the 28-year-old Cocere.
The unbeaten Esteban Cocere (28-0-1, 15 KOs) is from Argentina, and he’s not ranked in the top 15 by the World Boxing Organisation or any of the other three sanctioning bodies. In 2012, Cocere fought to a four round draw against Cesar Hernan Reynoso (15-13-4, 7 KOs) in Argentina.
For Saunders to make a defense against a un-ranked Cocere, he’ll need for the World Boxing Organization to sanction the fight. It’ll be interesting to see if the WBO gives Saunders, 29, the green light to defend his super middleweight title against Cocere.
Cocere’s resume is weak
It’s nice that Cocere has an unbeaten record, but his resume is absolutely atrocious. He’s been fighting largely journeyman level fighters much of his career, and there’s no one of note on his record that suggests that he should be getting a world title shot.
Here are Cocere’s last seven opponents:
- German Ignacio Peralta (7-6-5)
- Carmelito De Jesus (18-7, 15 KOs)
- Basilio Silva (24-18, 21 KOs)
- Davi Eliasquevici (14-9-1, 11 KOs)
- Cristian Rodrigo Zarate (9-3, 2 KO)
- Mirko Manquecoy (8-7-1, 1 KOs)
- Abel Nicolas Adriel (23-19-3, 5 KOs)
Saunders hasn’t done much with his career since beating Andy Lee in 2015
If the Saunders vs. Cocere fight goes ahead for November 9th, then these would be Billy Joe’s opponents that he has to show for himself since 2017:
- Marcelo Esteban Cocere
- Shefat Isufi
- Charles Adamu
- David Lemieux
- Willie Monroe Jr.
With a record like that, Saunders’ promoter Eddie Hearn is wasting his time trying to get Gennadiy Golovkin or Saul Canelo Alvarez to fight him, because it’s not going to happen. Saunders doesn’t have the record to be fighting those guys. It doesn’t matter that he holds down the WBO super middleweight title. Titles don’t mean anything when a fighter doesn’t have a large following to back it.
🤜 @bjsaunders_ has a date… Opponent announced soon 🤛
Nov 9 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/fZObRkdTSH
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) October 2, 2019
