Billy Joe Saunders is a
fighter that has had to do it the hard way. He cleaned up British middleweight division with notable wins against big names such as Chris Eubank Jr., Spike O’Sullivan, Nick Blackwell and John
Ryder when he came to face Andy Lee for the WBO world title back in December.
After winning in a
majority decision against Lee the thought was that he would then look to take
on the world elite against fighters such as Daniel Jacobs, Miguel Cotto and
most importantly Gennady Golovkin. It looked as if the fight with Golovkin was
going to be made, especially when Golovkin himself had a tour around the UK. However
Saunders rejected the reported 2 million pound offer so now Triple G is
fighting Dominic Wade.
Next Frank Warren,
Saunders’ promoter and his team would have looked at the potential opponents on
the WBO rankings with names such as Hassam N’Dam certainly being thrown in the
mix. However N’Dam already has a fight set for March and it is likely that
Warren would have wanted Saunders to have an easy first defence.
In my opinion, it is
very understandable that Saunders does not want to throw himself into a huge
fight straight away and by his own admission he is not ready for the likes of
Golovkin. However fighting someone like Bursak will never even get close to preparing Saunders for that world class level.
Bursak has lost three
of his last six fights including losses to Martin Murray and Jarred Fletcher and is currently ranked 11th by the WBO .
It is such a shame that this defence has been arranged by Frank Warren as it is
a fight that Saunders will easily win. Will it prepare him for any trickier
fights in the future? The obvious answer is no. However if Warren can secure
Saunders that huge stadium fight that he has been talking about for the past
few months then all will soon be forgotten.
Tom Eckett
@boxingguru44
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