Last Saturday night, WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (26-0, 12 KOs) made a big statement when he dominated former IBF beltholder David Lemieux over twelve rounds.
Lemieux, because of his feared power and because the fight was taking place in Canada, was viewed by some experts as a favorite to win.
Saunders, in his HBO televised debut, boxed circles around the Lemieux, who was unable to land any of big shots in the contest.
BoxingScene.com first reported last week, that former WBA "regular" champion Daniel Jacobs (33-2, 29 KOs) was scheduled to return in April, at the Barclays Center in Brookyn, and he wants Saunders as the opponent in the opposite corner.
With the big win by Saunders, he's not about to cross over to Jacobs' hometown for a title defense.
Saunders' promoter, Frank Warren, is not sold on facing Jacobs next and says a title defense against the Brooklyn fighter would only happen on their terms.
The negotiations would likely be tense, since Jacobs' recently signed on with Warren's promotional in the UK, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom - as that would open up several crucial negotiating points, like which network in the UK would televise the fight.
“I don’t want to build it into something like we need Jacobs,” Warren said to Boxing News. “What’s in it for us? And if we’re going to do it, it’s going to be on our terms.”
Warren would have liked to match Saunders against Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez or IBF, WBA, WBC, IBO world champion Gennady Golovkin - but the two fighters are in serious negotiations to face each other in a rematch on May 5th.
“[Saunders will] be out April/May,” said Warren. “I’d love a really big fight for him but those two guys, it’s a nuisance that we can’t get to them. That bad decision [when Golovkin and Canelo drew in September] didn’t help. They’d probably have made the rematch anyway," Warren said.