Fight fans may have read how reigning WBO middleweight champ Billy Joe Saunders issued world ruler Gennady Golovkin an ultimatum: sign to fight me by the end of this week or I move on to another fight. Well, Saunders’ promoter Frank Warren, in speaking with ESPN, has extended the deadline to the end of next week.
Like his fighter, though, Warren insists there will be no waiting game employed with this fight.
“We’ve been in talks for a long time and it’s time to put up or shut up,” Warren told ESPN. “Golovkin says his dream is to hold all the belts, well he can make his dream a reality. All he has to do is sign the contract. Wherever and whenever they want. But we’re not going to keep waiting. If something is not done in the next ten days we’re going to have to move on. Financially the terms have been agreed and it’s just whether they want to do it or not.”
So, does GGG want to do it, as in go after the sole belt he does not yet own? Saunders, a talented and unbeaten southpaw who holds good wins over Chris Eubank Junior and Andy Lee, clearly wants the fight; encouraged as he was by the struggle GGG had with Danny Jacobs last time out – Triple-G appearing to especially struggle when Jacobs turned southpaw. In fact, BJS has been calling for a fight with Golovkin for some time.
Is Golovkin concerned over what Oscar De La Hoya recently said, regarding how if GGG takes a June fight it will jeopardise the big September showdown with Canelo Alvarez? Which fight does GGG want most: the unification fight or the super-fight? In an ideal world, Golovkin would get both, but it seems he now has a choice to make. And Saunders isn’t willing to wait too much longer for a decision.
Go back a few months, and you would likely have been hard-pressed to find too many fans (outside of British fans) willing to bet on Saunders beating Golovkin. Is this the case now?