WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders may have missed out on the chance to unify against WBA and WBC boss Gennady Golovkin, but a big fight could still be lined up for him.
Promoter Frank Warren has booked the O2 in London for September 15 and Saunders could step up in weight to challenge IBF super-middleweight titlist James DeGale, pitting the 2008 Olympic team-mates against one another.
“He’d have to go up and give away weight if that did happen, but we will see if it can be done,” the promoter told Boxing News. “I think all of those names are in the hat. That would be a great fight. I’m sure all the fans would come out for that. All those names at the moment are there to be considered. I’ve got to sit down with Bill, which I will do over the weekend and we’ll work out what we’re going to do.”
Saunders pulled out of his June 23 bout with Martin Murray with an injured hamstring. He was in the frame for the fight with Golovkin, until at the last moment “GGG’s” rematch with Canelo Alvarez was made.
“It wasn’t frustrating. Bill wasn’t ready to fight in August, he’s injured. He can’t fight till September. We had some calls and talks about it. I always felt from day one that that fight [Golovkin-Canelo II] would go on. There’s no reason why it wouldn’t go on. We knew it was going to happen. I didn’t want Bill to be used as a stalking horse. We’re focused on what we’re doing. We’ve got an event booked for September 15, we were hoping the winner of Martin and Bill would be fighting on that date in September, booked for the O2, hopefully Bill will be fit enough to box on that,” Warren said.
“There’s lots of options. I want to first of all make sure Bill’s ready to fight. Because what I don’t want is yet another pull out so he’s got to be 100%.”
