With less than three weeks to go until fight night, Billy Joe Saunders is in the shape of his life for his next World Title defence.
On September 16th, the unbeaten Middleweight defends his WBO crown against American Willie Monroe Jr at the Copper Box Arena, live on BT Sport and BoxNation.
Saunders recently teamed up with Sheffield-based trainer Dominic Ingle, and the move appears to be paying off.
The undisputed middleweight championship of the world. This is the lofty title that one fighter may lay claim to before the end of 2017, or in the early stages of 2018.
Not too long ago, unbeaten and, before now, heavily avoided Kazakh warrior Gennady Golovkin looked like the only fighter capable of scooping up all four universally accepted 160 pound titles – WBC,WBA,IBF,WBO – but now, with GGG’s upcoming fight with Canelo Alvarez viewed by most as a 50/50 clash, and with the winner set to face the winner of the WBO title fight that will go down that same night, between Billy Joe Saunders and former GGG victim Willie Monroe Jr, there are differing opinions on who may become THE middleweight king in five to seven months from now.
WBO middleweight ruler Billy Joe Saunders has a big and meaningful fight for the first time in over a year, and the unbeaten southpaw is expected to formally announce it later today: Saunders, 24-0(12) is expected to face fellow southpaw Willie Monroe Junior, 21-2(6) on September 16 in London.
And today via instagram, Saunders appeared in a short video in which he had harsh words for both Monroe Jr. and Chris Eubank Jr. Saunders, in one of his biggest wins, decisioned Eubank back in November of 2014, taking Eubank’s unbeaten record, and he has been close to fighting him again. The rematch has not been made, though, and, in light of Eubank’s move up to super-middleweight and his entry into The World Boxing Super Series eight-man tournament, it’s likely it never will get made.
Both guys are talented, willing to fight the best, and one of them has a legit world title. And it could be, according to RingTV.com, that Billy Joe Saunders, 24-0(12) and Willie Monroe Junior, 21-2(6) will fight in London on September 16 (yes, the same night world middleweight ruler Gennady Golovkin defends against Canelo Alvarez in their Las Vegas Super Fight).
We are all waiting for talented and unbeaten WBO middleweight champ Billy Joe Saunders to get a fight where he can really, truly prove his worth. The gifted southpaw has called out Gennady Golovkin, on numerous occasions, as well as other big names of his division and elsewhere; but the massive fights have, for one reason or another, proven elusive for BJS.
All set to fight dangerous, sawn-off banger Avtandill Khurtsidze on July 8, Saunders saw that intriguing fight fall apart due to his would-be challenger’s shocking arrest for, well, all manner of seriously alleged things. So without a dance partner when he seriously needs one (Saunders has boxed just once since December of 2015) the 24-0(12) champ might just have found one in monster puncher David Lemieux.
WBO Middleweight World Champion Billy Joe Saunders will no longer feature on the Saturday 8th July show at the Copper Box Arena after his mandatory challenger Avtandil Khurtsidze was arrested in New York.
WBO Middleweight World Champion Billy Joe Saunders will make the second defence of his crown against mandatory challenger Avtandil Khurtsidze on Saturday 8th July at London’s Copper Box Arena, live on BT Sport and BoxNation.
Hatfield’s Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs) defeated Irish hero Andy Lee to take the WBO strap in a close and absorbing fight back in December 2015 that saw the undefeated star floor the former Champion twice in the third round and go on to claim a majority decision from the judges.
Andre Rozier, trainer of newly-crowned WBO Interim World Middleweight Champion Avtandil Khurtsidze, believes his man will ‘beat down’ undefeated Hatfield star Billy Joe Saunders when the pair face-off for the full WBO crown.
Khurtsidze – a short, stocky beast of a boxer – silenced the Leicester Arena crowd on Saturday by heavily flooring Birmingham’s Tommy Langford with a brutal left hand early in the fifth round to secure the vacant Interim strap.
WBO World Middleweight Champion Billy Joe Saunders is training in Marbella, Spain with former Heavyweight ruler Tyson Fury.
The undefeated Hatfield star posted a video onto his Instagram page this morning confirming that Fury is back in training.
This week Fury revealed that he is targeting a comeback this summer in a quest to regain his status as World Heavyweight Champion.
Just what will middleweight champ Gennady Golovkin’s next move/fight be? The last we heard, GGG’s Dream Fight was to face reigning WBO boss Billy Joe Saunders, thus being able (if he won the fight) to walk around with every single middleweight strap there is that counts.
According to BJS promoter Frank Warren, Saunders has signed the contract, and is now merely waiting for Triple-G to do likewise; the fight a real possibility for June in Golovkin’s home country of Kazakhstan. But Warren, in speaking with iFL TV, recently said that he has been informed by a member of Team-Golovkin that GGG is currently nursing an injury of some kind, and is holding out on putting pen to paper, contract-wise, as a result.