By: Michael Kane
Billy Joe Saunders is due to face German based Albanian Shefat Isufi on May 18th at Stevenage FC’s Lamex Stadium for the vacant WBO world super middleweight title.
However one man is on his mind as he took to Frankwarren.com to call out Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
Canelo unified the WBC, WBA Super and IBF middleweight titles at the weekend with his win over Daniel Jacobs at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Former WBO world middleweight champion Saunders said, “I would love the Canelo fight, but does he want to fight me? I don’t think so.
“If they do want to fight me, ring me up. I am not asking for millions. Just be fair with me and we can get the show on the road.
“Canelo has cemented his name, made good money and is a superstar in the sport. I wouldn’t say he is avoiding me, but there are plenty of people he can pick apart from Billy Joe Saunders.
“That is a fact. Who wants to fight a slick southpaw who is hard to hit?
“It could be middleweight or super-middleweight. I want the big fights and that is a reason I am moving up to super-middleweight. I cannot get the big fights at middleweight.”
Jacob’s had agreed to a clause in that he couldn’t regain too much weight on the day of the fight, he came in 3.6 lbs over this and was penalised by approx $750,000.
Saunders said this wouldn’t restrict him.
“I wouldn’t be restricted for any weight clauses at all.
“Daniel Jacobs was clearly struggling to come in the next day only three pounds over the agreed weight. If he wanted to balloon up he would have been eight or nine pounds above what he was at the weigh-in.
“That has cost him a lot of money and I believe that took a bit of performance away from Jacobs.”
If Saunders can become a two weight world champion by adding the Super middleweight title, he would be interested in facing fellow Englishman WBA super champion Callum Smith in a unification bout.
Saunders said, “Callum is a good fighter and big, but I think people go on about size in this sport too much.
“We saw David Haye beating Nikolai Valuev. Size doesn’t matter in this sport.
“If you’re good enough, you’re good enough, end of and I believe I am good enough to beat Callum Smith. That is a fight I would entertain.”