By Steve Kim
There was much speculation that WBO middleweight titlist, Billy Joe Saunders (23-0, 12KOs), was going to make the first defense of his title this weekend at AT&T Stadium near Dallas, Texas on the undercard of Saul Alvarez-Liam Smith. Instead, that deal between Frank Warren and Golden Boy Promotions fell apart.
Warren explained to BoxingScene.com on Thursday morning - "We hadn't agreed to terms. The discussions I had with Oscar (De La Hoya) is that he would appear on the card and I would pick the opponent and the next minute we were being told he's going to fight this guy and that guy and that's not what I agreed to do."
Golden Boy Promotions preferred that Saunders- who defeated Andy Lee last year for the title - face one of their clients, Gabe Rosado (who is now paired with Willie Monroe on Saturday night).
"Billy had been out of the ring for since December, he hadn't fought and to cut a long story short it had been going on for quite awhile leading into the fight, literally four weeks before the fight and we pulled he plug on it and decided to do the show in the UK with him instead," said Warren.
Warrene recently announced that Saunders will make the first defense of his title on the Tyson Fury-Wladimir Klitschko rematch undercard on October 29th in Manchester. The leading candidates are Artur Akavov and Rob Brant.
"So that's the conversations we're having and obviously we're out there this wee to try and nail it down and get it over the line," said Warren, who represents Smith and is out here in Texas.
"And if he comes through that, we've already started preliminary discussions with (Gennady) Golovkin's people - if he comes through on the 29th - to fight Golovkin in February."
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com
