By Edward Chaykovsky

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya is shaking his head after watching Billy Joe Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs) retain his world title this past weekend.

In his first fight since capturing the WBO middleweight world title last December from Any Lee, Saunders struggled to win a twelve round unanimous decision over unknown contender Artur Akavov (16-2, 7 KOs).

Some of the observers at ringside, including some of the BoxNation commentators, felt Saunders had done enough to win.

Saunders was initially booked to return this past September, as part of the undercard to Canelo's fight with WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith. Golden Boy and Team Saunders were unable to reach an agreement on the opponent - and Golden Boy, who promote Canelo, were forced to pull Saunders from the show. The fight was going to be part of a two-fight deal, which would have led to a potential Canelo vs. Saunders fight in December.

Canelo scored a knockout win over Smith, but suffered a hand injury in the process and postponed his ring return until next year. Saunders is still being mentioned as a possible opponent for Canelo in 2017. That fight would be targeted for February or May.  

Saunders admits his performance against Akavov was "terrible." He felt very rusty and struggled with weight - confirming that he ballooned to 210 pounds and had to waste most of his training camp cutting down to 160.

Because of that performance, De La Hoya is stepping back from the previous offer that his company made to Frank Warren, who promotes Saunders. If Saunders is still willing to face Canelo - it will have to happen at 50% of the original offer.

"We’ve made an offer to Billy Joe Saunders. But after his performance, from what I saw - I’m officially cutting that offer in half,” said De La Hoya to Fight View 360.

“So if he wants to fight Canelo, he’s more than happy to..... but the offer we put on the table doesn’t stand whatsoever. We would have to renegotiate and come to terms because look - Canelo’s the guy and he’s the man. And obviously Billy Joe Saunders didn’t make a name for himself in his last fight."