Billy Joe Saunders is sending signals that he’d like to test his skills against Gennady Golovkin in June in Kazakhstan.
Exhibit A: See the t shirt Saunders is sporting, above, the one he posted on his social media on Sunday?
That inflammatory caption seems to indicate that Saunders, 24-0, age 27, wants GGG to giddy up and come to terms for a Brit versus Kazakh clash. GGG has said he’s a belt collector, and has his eyes on the WBO strap currently held by Saunders.
Saunders’ promoter, Frank Warren, has said he and Team Saunders are pumped to cross Ts, but don’t want to waste time. They think that all terms have to be wrapped up in a week, or they will move on.
Saunders got the belt in a vacant belt showdown with Andy Lee, in a sub stunning tango, in December 2015. He was not a busy body in 2016, fighting once. Beating Artur Akavov in December in less than dominant fashion simply doesn’t heap leverage power to BJS as he barks at GGG. Why would a man who fought five times in the last 3.5 years all of a sudden feel the need to get a deal done ASAP? When the opportunity and purse would be the largest of his career?
Saunders has taunted GGG before, last year, and then pirouetted away. Golovkin trainer Abel Sanchez recalls. “Now he wants to, when he was asked before and when GGG could fit it into the schedule, he wasn’t ready,” Sanchez said. “So if it doesn’t get made, he missed out.”
Golovkin promoter Tom Loeffler didn’t respond to a request for an update on that possible GGG next date, in June.
So, who knows…maybe this thing gets wrapped up right quick and maybe we see some entertaining lead up.
A pissed off Golovkin, in a mode where he A) is annoyed at a needling foe and B) wanting to prove that he isn’t aging and falling off, that could result in a decent promotion.
