Billy Joe Saunders is ready to move up to super middleweight.
Having successfully defended his WBO middleweight title on three occasions in the past year, Saunders is looking for a new challenge as he awaits the unification option which will arrive when the much-discussed rematch between Gennady Golovkin and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez goes down.
A non-title clash with Amir Khan was toyed with by Saunders’ promoter Frank Warren but if you ask the reigning WBO champ, he’s targeting a different name entirely.
As long as he is allowed to keep a hold of his belt, Saunders is eager to move up to super middleweight to face the man who shocked James DeGale just two weeks ago.
DeGale, who was in the same 2008 Olympic squad as Saunders, was 1/200 to successfully defend his IBF super middleweight title against American opponent Caleb Truax on December 9 but found himself on the wrong end of a majority decision.
And now that Truax has a championship belt attached to his name, Saunders is keen to take it away from him.
“Whoever they put in front of me and tell me to fight, I’ll fight them,” Saunders said, via BoxingScene.com.
“If they ring me and say, ‘You have to fight King Kong’, I’ll fight King Kong.
“I’ve got the option to move up in weight and there are some big fights up there at 12st.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bcy5c9Uh849/?hl=en&taken-by=saundersbillyjoe
“I would love to fight Truax who beat DeGale, I’d be happy to take him in April if he was willing to come over.
“As long as I could keep my middleweight belt, I’d move up and win that IBF belt at super middleweight too.
“To go there and take it off James DeGale, fair play to Truax. It shows that in boxing anything can happen.
“When you’re fighting someone who is coming for that title, who is coming from America where he lives in a shed somewhere, that title is his big ticket.
“I can’t afford slip ups at this stage.”
Saunders put on an absolute clinic in his most recent defence against David Lemieux and continues to display the pay-offs of his dedicated work with new trainer Dominic Ingle.
