Frank Warren: Saunders won’t fight GGG at less than 100 percent

Promoter Frank Warren potentially has a big money fight on his hands with Billy Joe Saunders, but the veteran promoter insists they won’t rush foolishly into a bout with Gennady Golovkin on May 5 if Canelo Alvarez winds up scratched from the date.

Saunders (26-0, 12 KO) holds the WBO middleweight title, which is the one belt in the division that Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KO) doesn’t have in his possession. But Saunders was set to fight on April 14, only for a hand injury to push that back to June 23.

That said, Warren told the BoxNation Podcast that Saunders could be ready before then — or he might not be.

“The problem we’ve got is that Bill sustained a hand injury. We postponed the fight to the 23rd of June, only because that’s the first date we could get at The O2. Whether he’ll be ready earlier, we’ll know this week.

”I don’t know if being ready by the 5th of May is a proposition but we’ll have a look and see. If he does fight Golovkin he’s not going in there 80 or 90%, he’s got to go in there 100% fit.”

Golovkin-Saunders is definitely the most attractive matchup if GGG’s fight with Canelo is scrapped, which we’ll know more about on April 10, when Alvarez faces the Nevada commission and they make a ruling on his status, following two failed drug tests in the lead-up to the rematch.

But that doesn’t mean it can happen right now, due to Saunders’ injury. Golovkin is determined to keep the May 5 date, and it would be hard to blame Saunders for not wanting to risk anything other than his very best self against Golovkin.