BoxRec

"James DeGale ‘in the hat’ for Billy Joe Saunders September fight"

Billy Joe Saunders has a date and venue for his next fight.

Promoter Frānk Wārrĕn has booked the O2 in London for September 15 and Saunders could step up in weight to challenge IBF super-middleweight titlist James DeGale, pitting the 2008 Olympic team-mates against one another.

“He’d have to go up and give away weight if that did happen, but we will see if it can be done,” the promoter told Boxing News. “I think all of those names are in the hat. That would be a great fight. I’m sure all the fans would come out for that. All those names at the moment are there to be considered. I’ve got to sit down with Bill, which I will do over the weekend and we’ll work out what we’re going to do.”

“We’re focused on what we’re doing. We’ve got an event booked for September 15, we were hoping the winner of Martin and Bill would be fighting on that date in September, booked for the O2, hopefully Bill will be fit enough to box on that,” Warren said.

Thoughts?

Not gonna happen. BJS won't risk it when he still has a chance to land on big money at 160.

boxing_rocks wrote: ↑20 Jun 2018, 14:03 Not gonna happen. BJS won't risk it when he still has a chance to land on big money at 160.

Agreed.
I think BJS might end up doing a Khan.
At least he has a belt which might make a difference.

I think it'll eventually happen, but perhaps not in September.

Fränk Wärrēn works with both fighters and DeGale not only holds a legitimate title, but he's also past-his-prime and ready for the taking. And this isn't the first time that Queensberry promotions have considered matching up these fighters either.

DeGale would do fairly well and be competitive for the first five rounds or so but will fade badly and inevitably lose by decision against Saunders.

And let's not forget that Billy Joe is a big middleweight. So big, in fact, that even his mandatory challenger, Demetrius Andrade, doesn't think he's physically big enough to face the Brit just yet.

Saunders takes DeGale's 168lbs title, but immediately vacates it to return to 160lbs later on to face Canelo or Golovkin - probably the latter.