BILLY JOE SAUNDERS is not “moving on” from a Gennady Golovkin fight despite claims to the contrary on social media after a deadline he laid down expired yesterday.
Earlier this week Saunders made it clear that a fight with the unbeaten Kazakh needed to be signed by Friday, or else he would pursue other options. His promoter, Frank Warren, backed up this deadline to Boxing News.
Yesterday, Saunders tweeted a picture of a brief online conversation he had with Golovkin’s promoter, Tom Loeffler, a few weeks ago and insisted he is “moving on” after no major developments occured.
Just before his last fight dates are their ‘ @GGGBoxing shit house ‘ moving on with me career I didn’t see no contract still #WBOKingpic.twitter.com/H8ZQf45NMQ
— billyjoesaunders (@bjsaunders_) March 31, 2017
However, earlier today Warren confirmed to us via text message that they “haven’t moved on” and – interestingly – that they will be making a statement next week. While this is by no means confirmation that the fight is on, it is positive news after Saunders’ online comments.
It appears there was already an agreement of sorts in place for Golovkin-Saunders prior to Gennady’s points win over Danny Jacobs two weeks ago. Negotiations picked up pace after his victory in New York, though reports out of Kazakhstan claim that there have been issues in finalising the fight to coincide with the Expo 2017 taking place there in June.
The date mooted for the clash – which would create an undisputed middleweight champion – has been June 10 but as reported by Steve Kim of Boxing Scene earlier this week, Loeffler revealed there had been some “back-and-forth” with regards to securing a date.
After his win over Jacobs, Golovkin described a meeting with WBO champion Saunders as his “dream fight,” while Billy Joe has made his desire to fight the unified WBC, WBA and IBF supremo clear over the past few weeks, and is willing to travel to Kazakhstan for it.
Warren and Loeffler have been in frequent contact over the past couple of weeks, despite both being involved in big cards next weekend. Warren promotes a bumper card in Manchester on April 8 while Loeffler’s excellent cruiserweight, Oleksandr Usyk, fights in America on the same date.
