By Carlos Boogs

Last month, WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (23-0 12 KOs) was being positioned to fight on the HBO Pay-Per-View undercard to Saul "Canelo" Alvarez's challenge of Liam Smith at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

The opponent offered was Gabe Rosado, who like Canelo is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions. The winner of Saunders-Rosado was promised a fight with Canelo.

According to Saunders, Golden Boy's guarantee of a Canelo fight was all verbal and they refused to make it a binding agreement with a signed contract.

Because there was nothing in writing to guarantee a future date with Canelo, Saunders took a pass on fighting Rosado. He had no interest in giving Rosado a world title shot - unless Canelo was guaranteed on paper.

Golden Boy secured Willie Monroe to replace Saunders on the pay-per-view, and Monroe outboxed Rosado for a unanimous decision win. 

Saunders is presently preparing for the first defense of his title, against Russia’s Artur Akavov (16-1 7 KOs) on Frank Warren’s October 22 Motorpoint Arena card in Cardiff, which is televised on BoxNation. Saunders has been out of the ring since capturing the title last December with a decision win over Ireland's Andy Lee.

"I was willing to come to America to fight King Rosado, the unbelievably good fighter who I ducked - because I was scared of getting beat. But they wouldn't sign, seal and deliver the fight with Canelo. I was going to go to America and fight him on Golden Boy show, even though he is what he is. I would still give him a chance but the reward after is Canelo - and they didn't want to sign that, so I didn't go to America," Saunders explained to BoxingScene.com's Declan Taylor.

"Rosado, I don't like to disrespect no one, but he is what he is. If I couldn't punch him about for twelve rounds or stop him - I would give up boxing because I don't deserve to face Golovkin, I don't deserve to be where I am.  In my opinion, without being disrespectful to him, he is a good test for someone. He's a stepping stone. And If I couldn't beat a guy like that - I would give up. It's pointless fighting people like that if Im not going to get the reward after."

Saunders further explained that a "verbal promise" was not good enough for him, after what happened between Canelo and Gennady Golovkin back in May. Canelo, after knocking out Amir Khan, made Golovkin come inside the ring and accepted GGG's challenge for the fall. Instead, Canelo vacated the WBC middleweight belt and then finalized the fight with Smith at 154.

"Listen, they promised Golovkin a fight and didn't fight. The night they called Golovkin in the ring and [Canelo] humiliated himself by saying he was going to fight him and then a week later vacated his belt. Maybe he wants to fight [me], but someone in charge obviously doesn't want it. To them he's worth a lot of money. I'm all wrong for him," Saunders said.