Saunders willing to fight Danny Jacobs

Boxingnews24.com

By Juan Flores: After learning that former middleweight champion Daniel “Miracle Man” Jacobs (33-2, 29 KOs) plans on coming to Montreal to sit ringside for his December 16th fight against David Lemieux, WBO 160 lb. champion Billy Joe Saunders (25-0, 12 KOs) says that he would be willing to fight the American as long as the money is right.

Jacobs doesn’t need to come to Montreal to get the fight. Saunders will fight him if his promoter Eddie Hearn gives him a good offer to fight. Saunders says he’ll fight Jacobs in the UK or in the U.S. It doesn’t matter.

Jacobs beat Luis Arias (18-1, 9 KOs) last Saturday night by a 12 round unanimous decision, and immediately after the fight, he told the boxing press that he’ll be at the Saunders-Lemieux fight on the 16th of December to call out the winner. At the same time, Jacobs says he’s not chasing either of them. He just wants them to know that he would like to fight them.

“He doesn’t need to challenge me, because put the right deal in front of me and I’ll take it. No problem,” said Saunders to skysports.com. ”I’m not bothered where we do it. If he’s the biggest test I can get then so be it. We’ll most definitely get it on, and try and get a crack at one of the big uns next. That’s the goal.”

Saunders is interested in fighting Canelo or Golovkin, since that’s where the money is. Fighting them gives Saunders more attention in the boxing world than facing Jacobs, who has only beaten one good fighter during his 10-year pro career in Peter Quillin. Jacobs’ claim to fame right now is losing a close 12 round decision against Golovkin last March. Jacobs lost the fight, but he was competitive. Saunders agrees that Jacobs made it close against Golovkin, BUT he lost the fight. That’s the simple fact. Jacobs still lost to Golovkin.

It’s going to be difficult for Jacobs’ promoter Eddie Hearn to offer the Saunders vs. Lemieux winner more money than what they would get fighting the likes of Canelo or Golovkin. There’s more arguably more money for Saunders and Lemieux to fight Canelo or GGG than they’d get fighting Jacobs. Hearn signed Jacobs recently to his Matchroom Sport stable, but he’s still not popular enough in the UK for his fights to be televised on Sky Box Office PPV.

If Jacobs was a PPV fighter in the UK, then Hearn could offer big money to the Saunders-Lemieux winner to get them to take the fight with him. He obviously can’t do that without overpaying dramatically and losing money in the process. HBO isn’t going to come up with massive amounts of money to get the Saunders-Lemieux winner to face Jacobs.

“They are overhyping that terrific loss and comparing it to other fighters,” said Saunders about Jacobs and Hearn making a big deal about fight with Golovkin being a close one last March. He went up against the best and he came short.”

Hearn and Jacobs are getting a lot of mileage out of the Golovkin fight. It would be better for them to forget about the Golovkin fight, and put it in the past instead of using it as victory of some sorts just because the fight was close. Hearn would do better to match Jacobs against Jermall Charlo so that he could show the boxing world that he’s capable of beating a good fighter instead of banging on about the Golovkin fight 24/7. To some boxing fans, Jacobs and Hearn seem kind of pathetic the way they keep bringing up the Golovkin fight, as if it was a victory.