Saunders ready for Golovkin in December

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (25-0, 12 KOs) says he’s ready to face IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) in December in a unification fight if GGG is ready to get back into the ring that quickly.

Golovkin was involved in a somewhat hard fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Golovkin ended up getting lumped up by Canelo despite winning the fight. In contrast, Saunders had an easy 12 round unanimous decision over #5 WBO Willie Monroe Jr. (21-3, 6 KOs), who did little more than jab all night. It was such an easy fight for Saunders. It’s not surprising that he’s so eager to get back into the ring to face GGG in December.

”Weekend is out the way Bk to good food today Bk in camp next week @GGGBoxing well done champ for Saturday you ready coz I am AllTheBELTS,” said Saunders on his Twitter.

Saunders is also interested in fighting inactive welterweight Amir Khan, who hasn’t fought in 1 ½ years since getting knocked out in the 6th round. Just how that would fly with the World Boxing Organization is the big question. Do they sanction Khan as an opponent for Saunders to defend his WBO middleweight title against or do they tell him to defend against a contender? Khan hasn’t won a fight in 2 1/2 years since his victory over Chris Algieri on May 29, 2015.

“I do not think they’ll be ready for December,” Saunders said via ESPN Deportes last Saturday night. “Amir Khan has boxed at 160 pounds before and I would love that fight, what a fight that would be between me and him. I just want a good fight, a big fight, that’s what I’m in boxing for. He’s a very good name and I rate him. I’ve watched him for years and years. So if he’s willing to come up to middleweight, like he did for Canelo, he might think he’s got a chance of winning my world title.”

That would be a joke if Khan could fight for another middleweight title in back to back fights. How does the WBO allow Saunders to defend against Khan, a fighter that isn’t rated in the top 15 at middleweight, and hasn’t fought in over 2 ½ years? It would reflect badly on the WBO if they let Saunders defend his WBO title against Khan. However, we just saw the WBO let Miguel Cotto fight Yoshihiro Kamegai for the vacant WBO junior middleweight title on August 26. Cotto hadn’t fought since 2015, and the WBO gave him a No.1 ranking with their organization. The WBO even had Kamegai rated #6, above a far more talented fighter in Erickson Lubin, who they have ranked No.10. Kamegai looked like he didn’t belong in the top 100 with the way he fought Cotto. He looked worse than awful. Khan isn’t ranked in the top 15 even at welterweight. He’s been dropped from the welterweight ratings due to his inactivity.

Saunders vs. Khan would be a good exhibition match. It would be a good event fight like the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor circus match. You can’t take a Saunders-Khan fight seriously, because you’re talking about an over-the-hill, inactive welterweight fighting what is arguably a paper champion at middleweight. The WBO supposedly had ordered Saunders to fight back to back mandatory challengers. I wonder what happened with that order. Saunders’ fight with Monroe Jr. was against a #2 ranked contender. If Saunders is supposed to fight another mandatory, then that means he must fight #1 WBO David Lemieux next unless he can face Golovkin in a unification fight.

Golovkin, 35, now has time to kill due to Canelo deciding he doesn’t want to fight the rematch against him until May of next year. Golovkin usually fights at least 3 times per year. Thus far, Golovkin has fought twice in 2017 against Danny Jacobs on March 18 and Canelo last Saturday night. If Golovkin wants to fight a third time in 2017, then Saunders is the best guy for him to fight.

It’s an easy fight for Golovkin, given how weak Saunders is as a puncher. Saunders seems to be battling weight nowadays. He looked drained for his last 2 fights against Monroe Jr. and Artur Akavov. But even when Saunders wasn’t being forced to melt down huge amount of weight to make weight for his middleweight contests, he never had much punching power, and he’s always gassed out after 6 rounds.

Monroe Jr. had a real chance of beating Saunders last Saturday night if he’d thrown some punches and went on the attack instead of playing it safe for 12 rounds by just jabbing him. That was a real wasted effort by Monroe. He had a weak champion in front of him in Saunders, and he should have been able to step on the gas and get him out of there, but he never lashed himself. He was content to play it safe of 12 rounds and just survive.

Golovkin would be a huge favorite to beat Saunders if the two of them face each other in December. It’s not much of a fight for the U.S, but it would play out well in the UK, where Golovkin has a large following of British boxing fans. It wouldn’t be surprising if Golovkin has the fans on his side on the night of the fight against Saunders in the UK if he decides to face him in the UK. He might as well.

I doubt that the U.S boxing fans would get too excited about seeing Golovkin fight Saunders in the U.S. Saunders doesn’t even have a following among the hardcore boxing fans. He’s just a guy that won the WBO title by a controversial 12 round majority decision over Andy Lee 2 years ago in 2015. Saunders has only defended his title 2 times in 2 years in beating Artur Akavov by a controversial 12 round decision and Monroe, who did nothing to earn a title shot.

If Goovkin wants to get his hands on the WBO title, he’s going to need to take the fight against Saunders as soon as possible. Saunders could get beaten, even by a guy like Khan. Saunders is that bad of a fighter. Further, Golovkin could get robbed the next time he faces Canelo. He was already arguably robbed last weekend in getting a draw out of a fight he should have won by an easy 12 round unanimous decision by the score 116-112. Golovkin is lucky they didn’t rip him off this time.

I could see him getting royally robbed when he faces Canelo again. I don’t think Golovkin will ever be given a decision over a popular fighter like Canelo. That’s why he should have been attacking Canelo all out from the very start of the fight and trying to knock the guy out, Instead of doing that, Golovkin mostly boxed Canelo, and waited until the last 15 seconds of the fight to try and get him out of there. Golovkin almost did knockout Canelo in the last seconds, but he ran out of time.

If Golovkin wants the WBO belt, now is the time to go after it by fighting Saunders, 28, in December rather than waiting for the WBO to order a fight between Saunders and David Lemieux. If that happens, Lemieux will destroy Saunders. Golovkin will then have to fight Lemieux a second time. I don’t care how one-0sided their previous fight was in 2015, Lemieux still figures to be a much tougher fighter for Golovkin to face than the light hitting Saunders.