WBO Champion Billy Joe Saunders Gives Ultimatum For Fight Against GGG
Unified middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin might soon get his wish of unifying all the middleweight titles in boxing.
WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders’ promoter Frank Warren put an offer on the table for Golovkin to fight Saunders for his belt and Golovkin’s unified titles. Warren gave an ultimatum to Golovkin’s camp: sign the deal within 10 days or there is no fight.
“We’ve been in talks for a long time and it’s time to put up or shut up,” Warren told ESPN. “We thought we had a deal in place before the [Danny] Jacobs fight but then the WBA ordered a mandatory defense against Jacobs. Golovkin says his dream is to hold all the belts, well we can make his dream a reality. All he needs to do is sign the contract. Wherever and whenever they want. Billy is a traveler by name and nature so will fight him anywhere – Kazakhstan, America or England. But we’re not going to keep waiting. If something is not done in the next ten days we’re going to have move on. Financially the terms have been agreed and it’s just whether they want to do it or not.”
Golovkin holds the WBA “super,” WBC, IBF and IBO titles and Saunders’ WBO title is the lone major world title that Saunders has not won yet. Golovkin is coming off arguably the closest fight of his career, a close unanimous decision win over Daniel Jacobs, on March 18.
Saunders has only fought twice in the past 18 months. He won the WBO title over Andy Lee on December 2015 and defeated Artur Akavov in his first defense of his title last December.
Golovkin does not have any other opponents that would fight him in the immediate future outside of a rematch against Jacobs. The megafight against Canelo Alvarez is still nowhere near being agreed to. Canelo is fighting in May against fellow countryman Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
