By Steve Kim

There was a lot of talk recently about the possibility of WBO middleweight titlist Billy Joe Saunders (23-0, 12KOs) appearing on the Saul Alvarez-Liam Smith HBO pay-per-view undercard, which takes place on September 17th at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. But as of now, that will not come to fruition.

"We tried to make a deal, we couldn't make it happen," Sr. Vice President of Golden Boy Promotions Eric Gomez informed BoxingScene.com. "We couldn't meet in the middle so we're going to move on."

Gomez was insistent that Saunders face Gabe Rosado (23-9, 13KOs). It's believed that Saunders preferred to face Artur Akovov for whatever reason.

Golden Boy preferred Rosado because he was a known entity in the States and could help push the event with the American media.

The offer to Saunders, and his promoter Frank Warren, was part of a two-fight package that would have had Saunders and Canelo meet in December should they both come out victorious next month.

But Gomez did say - "We are still in interested in doing a possible fight with 'Canelo' [and Saunders] and we'll explore that after 'Canelo's fight with Smith. But we made (Saunders) an offer and we were negotiating for a week-and-a-half, two weeks and we couldn't come to terms."

Other names that were considered for Saunders - who has yet to make a defense of this title that he won back in December versus Andy Lee - were Curtis Stevens and Willie Monroe.

"What I'm told now is (Saunders) will fight back in the U.K," explained Gomez, who still holds out hope that Saunders will agree to face Rosado on September 17th.

"So I wished them luck and said, 'If we win and you get past your fight we can talk.''

Gomez, who says he will now try and salvage another opportunity for Rosado (who began training for September 17th last week in Los Angeles with trainer Fernando Vargas) still has to put together the rest of the undercard, which will include Golden Boy prospects Joseph Diaz, Jayson Quigley and Diego De La Hoya.

"I'm working on some things. I made a bunch of calls and I'm waiting for some calls back,"said Gomez on late Thursday afternoon.

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.