Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile/Corbis
In a pretty dull affair, with two southpaws goading each other to lead the dance, Billy Joe Saunders (23-0-0, 12 KOs) came out on top against Andy Lee (34-3-1, 24 KOs), and won a close fight that crowns him WBO middleweight champion, and allows him to enter the mix in what is fast becoming a reasonably interesting division again.
It’s hard to decide what Billy Joe Saunders does all that well. He always seems a little bit pudgy, he doesn’t have that much power, he’s not a spectacular athlete. Nothing he does is truly top class. But, y’know, he has a belt now. So I guess this means he is one of the divisions top boys?
I guess I find it hard to give BJS all that much credit now that I’ve heard him rant about Chris Eubank Jr getting raped at private school. His embarrassingly backwards diatribe on homosexuality in Brighton (I used to live there, it’s a pleasant city where the flamboyance and extravagance of the local gay community plays second fiddle to the downright weirdness of the rest of the city) has left many with a bad taste in their mouth (steady on Billy), and I’ve been wanting to see him suffer for his words ever since.
But to try and give Billy Joe a little more credit, credit that he absolutely deserves after his win over Lee, he is a quality technician. He has good upper body movement, and sits behind a decent jab and a nice variety of punches. Against Lee he was able to counter well, and hurt the Irishman, and whilst the fight was far from exciting, the two knockdowns were enough to win the fight and win a championship belt for Saunders.
He’s a tricky customer for sure. I just struggle to see how he can hold this belt for long, unless he goes the Peter Quillin route and fights at a level below his class for the foreseeable future.
Here’s my list of three guys that I think he should fight but that I think he’ll lose to in the process. And a fourth that I think he will fight, and probably lose to.
In all honesty, this is little more than a pipe dream. Saunders has previously acknowledged that he’d get battered by Gennady Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs), and I find it hard to believe his view on that has changed since. I find little intrigue in seeing this, and as much as I wish Saunders some ill, I draw the line at seeing him step in with a guy that will savage him quite as much as Golovkin will.
I have very little confidence in Saunders here, mostly because I see absolutely nothing he does better than Golovkin. He is a difficult customer, but Golovkin has proven that he can sit behind a jab and wait it out until you tire and start making mistakes. Saunders certainly isn’t going to win a war against him, as he has limited power, and whilst his chin has held out so far, I can’t see that happening against Golovkin.
He might be good enough to take away your best weapon, but when every tool in GGG‘s box is sharp enough to kill, Saunders is in for a rough night.
This one is all wrong for Saunders, and I suspect he knows this. It’s just here because I wanted to make it clear that a) it doesn’t happen, and b) if it did it’s not going to be pretty.
This fight might be more to Saunders’ liking. It’d make him plenty of money, and whilst Canelo Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) does a lot of things very well he is slow on his feet. That presents something of an opportunity for Saunders. Saunders has the skills to circle Canelo behind a jab and a careful selection of distance shots. But Canelo is much more experienced at the top level, and he’s come up against a number of looks. Simply put, I see Canelo being able to figure him out and land wherever possible, and in the process he would do enough for the scorecards.
This wouldn’t be an overwhelmingly exciting fight, but I think it would be an interesting tactical battle. Saunders would need to attempt to stay on his toes to stop Canelo from setting and striking, but Saunders isn’t the kind of brilliant athlete that Lara is (and Cotto, to be fair, although as a result of sheer size he was unable to completely achieve his goals), and as a result I think he’d have a hard time keeping it up all night long.
At some point, Canelo will get to him, and he’s going to bang away at whatever target is there for him, and all the slippery movement and clever defensive skills that Saunders has, I don’t think will be enough.
In terms of the likelihood of it happening. I think it depends on how the Golovkin vs Canelo fight happens. If he takes a beating (which he likely will win or lose), he will want a softer touch next time he steps through the ropes. But recently Canelo has seemed keen to fight competitive, credible fights, and this would be one.
Daniel Jacobs
Danny Jacobs (31-1, 28 KOs) is possibly the closest fight of the big three for Saunders. Jacobs has a lot of skills, and has speed and power, but he’s still relatively inexperienced and has plenty of flaws in his game that Saunders would be hoping to exploit. Jacobs rushes in a little, and has to learn to tighten his guard up when he comes in on the offence. Saunders would believe he can exploit this and pick him off on the counter. Personally, I think Jacobs would be able to overwhelm Saunders with his speed, and whilst Saunders will have some luck in ones and twos, Jacobs will be landing threes and fours.
However, unlike the above two, this seems like a fight that Saunders definitely can win. He’d go into this fight fancying his chances, and I think the odds would be pretty tight. That said, Canelo would offer a much bigger payday, and it would be well worth the risk for Saunders, so I think he’d be happy with either of these fights.
Chris Eubank Jr
There’s nothing like a domestic dust up! We’ve just had one, so why not go for another. And better yet? Why not have one that we’ve already seen before! Why I’m not a matchmaker is beyond me.
Chris Eubank Jr (21-1, 16 KOs) vs Saunders had a lot of bad blood, and they still don’t like each other, so they’d likely be more than happy to go at it for another 12 rounds. To add to the easy promotion, the previous fight was a fight of two halves. Eubank started slow, and gifted the first half of the fight to Saunders, before coming alive and starting to dust Saunders up.
There are many questions left for these two, and many feel that Eubank would now be the favourite going in to a rematch. Both guys have made improvements since they last fought, especially Eubank, who discovered a jab somewhere in his gym (although he needs to learn to use it even more). Add to this that they’ve both said they still want this fight, Saunders wanting to prove this wasn’t down to Eubank’s poor management of the fight, and Eubank wanting to prove that it was.
To be honest, I expect this is the most likely fight to happen in the near future. And I’m not all that mad about it. I think this is another one that Saunders loses too, so to round this piece off, congratulations on your win Billy Joe, it’ll never last!
Who do you want to see Saunders fight next? And who do you think he will fight next?
