Billy Joe Saunders will be defending his WBO middleweight title next month against an opponent still to be determined on October 22 at the Motorpoint Arena, in Cardiff, Wales. The fact that the 27-year-old Saunders still doesn’t have an opponent for the fight isn’t the greatest news for boxing fans, because it suggests that it might be an underwhelming name that he winds up facing.
Saunders’ opponent will be announced later this week. The two names that have been mentioned as being in the running for the fight are #7 Rob Brant and #11 WBO Artur Akavov. Having seen both of those fighters in action, I’m predicting that Saunders will wind up facing the 28-year-old Akavov, as he looks to be by FAR the worst of the two candidates. It’s not even close, which is why I see Akavov getting the job.
Saunders has been fighting pretty much mediocre fighters his entire career, and I see him reverting to form by continuing with that trend by fighting Akavov. The only decent quality fighters Saunders has faced thus far is Chris Eubank Jr. and Andy Lee. That’s. Both of those guys could have beaten him if they had fought harder and smarter in the first six rounds of those contests. Saunders is at his best in the first six rounds. After that, he wears down like an old clock and gives up rounds in the last half of his fights.
With Saunders in the running for a big payday fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in the first half of 2017, I see him milking his World Boxing Organization 160lb title with his October 22 fight rather than facing a live body that could potentially whip him. That means we’re not likely to see Saunders facing guys like #1 WBO Avtandil Khurtsidze, #3 WBO Ryota Murata, #4 David Lemieux, #8 Maciej Sulecki, #9 Chris Eubank Jr., #13 Curtis Stevens, #14 Willie Monroe Jr. or #15 Andy Lee. I think all of them would have a good chance of beating Saunders. Like I said, it’ll be either Brant or Akravov that winds up facing Saunders in a terrible mismatch.
Saunders said:
“I need to take care of this fight and then I’ll move on to bigger and better things. I’m fully focused on the job in hand and putting on an explosive performance down in Cardiff. I can’t wait to get this show on the road!”
Besides a match against Canelo Alvarez, Saunders has the option of fighting unbeaten IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in a unification match if he wants it. That fight is available to him if he wants it. Many boxing fans think Saunders will price himself out for the GGG fight, but will continue to name drop the popular champion’s name in order to create interest in his own fights. That would be sad if all Saunders is going to do is name drop Golovkin’s name rather than fight him. The fans want to see that fight, but you can’t force Saunders to face the talented Triple G.
The last time Saunders fought was way, way back in December, when he had to fight tooth and nail to edge Andy Lee by a 12 round majority decision to win the WBO 160lb title. Lee could have won the fight if he hadn’t been knocked down twice in the 3rd round. Lee was the better fighter in the last six rounds of the contest, but he just wasn’t able to overcome the two earlier knockdowns. I had the fight scored a draw, as I thought that Lee won the entire second half of the fight. Saunders fought like an old man in rounds six through twelve. He looked exhausted. Saunders was supposed to make the first defense of his WBO title last July against fringe contender Max Bursak, but he suffered a hand injury that led that fight to be canceled. It likely would have been a dreadful mismatch, so it’s perhaps for the better than the boxing fans didn’t have to see that fight. But if Saunders winds up facing Akavov on October 22n then I see that fight as being far worse than what we would have seen had he fought Bursak.
Saunders does not look like someone who is going to be able to hang onto his WBO title for any length of time. I hate to say it, but I see Saunders as a paper champion at 160, and I’d be surprised if he’ll be able to hold onto his belt for another year, even if he’s facing nothing but fodder each time out. The fact that Saunders had been the WBO champion for almost a year without defending his title is pretty pathetic. If this were a World Boxing Council title Saunders was holding, I think they would have demoted him to ‘Champion in Recess’ long ago, and would have had someone else as their new WBC belt holder by now. I just hope for the WBOs sake that Saunders doesn’t keep getting injured, because it would be sad if we only see him fighting every 10 months or so rather than on a more regular basis.
Saunders’ October 22 fight will be televised live on BoxNation.