The current middleweight division’s main man — as most fans see things, and Saunders too — Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin, is attempting to make a unification contest with Britain’s newly crowned WBO middleweight world champion, Billy Joe Saunders. Golovkin is trying his utmost to solidify his claim of being the premier fighter at the 160 pound limit, by unifying every major world title and becoming the undisputed champion at the weight.

As a fan of both Gennady Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) and Billy Joe Saunders, I can see and feel the frustration endured by boxing lovers around the world. The fans want to see the best fights, champion against champion. In an ideal world, the best would always face the best, post-haste, but boxing is predominantly a business, not just for the pugilists, but the promoters too.

Billy Joe Saunders (23-0 KO 12) said the following via his Twitter account: “People asking me about ‘GGG’ it’s down to my management. If I get the green light let’s GO!”

“One thing I am is a fighting man. I wouldn’t back down to a fight from any man.”

Billy Joe Saunders has also said the following to ESPN: “An offer has been made but people need to understand I don’t have a loss on my record and it’s not like Golovkin’s last opponent, David Lemieux, who had lost twice before he fought him, I believe I’m a better champion than Lemieux was, so I deserve more. They (Team Golovkin) are not chucking peanuts around, but I’m not going in there just to pick the money up.”
Saunders continued: “I could earn that money against someone else. They are offering life changing money but it’s not just about that because it would be a big risk for me. They’ve got to pay me more money than I would get for the Chris Eubank Jr rematch… I will fight him but I would like it to be in England, and if they can do that I would take a bit less, but they have to give me something.”

It is rumored that Saunders has received an offer of around 2.5 million pounds to unify against Golovkin. Billy Joe Saunders could opt to face lesser opposition than the ultra tricky test that is Gennady Golovkin. In facing other fighters, Saunders could still look to make decent revenue from two or three fights prior to the challenge that is ‘GGG’.

I don’t see anything wrong with that personally. I just hope that if this is indeed the case, Golovkin is still around at the 160 middleweight limit by the time Saunders has taken his own path. If the Golovkin team are not successful in getting Saunders to pair off against ‘GGG’ then it seems pretty certain that the Kazakh native will have to defend his IBF crown by squaring off against his mandatory challenger, Tureano Johnson.