Billy Joe Saunders insists that he hasn’t overlooked four-time world title challenger Martin Murray as he prepares to put his WBO super middleweight crown on the line for the second time this Friday at The SSE Arena, Wembley, shown live on Sky Sports and DAZN.
Saunders (29-0, 14 KOs) was on the verge of securing a mega-fight with Mexican pound-for-pound icon Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez earlier this year before the coronavirus pandemic turned the sporting world on its head.
Saunders, who was previously scheduled to face Murray twice in 2018, has expressed his desire to take on the winner of Alvarez vs. Callum Smith in a huge unification battle in 2021, but the 31-year-old two-weight world champion has refused to underestimate Murray.
“I just want to get one in before the end of the year,” said Saunders. “There’s a lot of fighters struggling to get out. I’ve had a major disappointment. The Canelo fight fell through in May. On Friday we’ll rock and roll.
“If you want to go on professional experience, he’s had more fights than me. He’s challenged for the world title four times. He should have been world champion in two of those fights. I’ve promised him a chance.
“There’s always a risk I could get in there and get knocked out in one round. There’s a risk to people’s lives. I haven’t overlooked Martin. I’ve trained myself the best I can for the date. I know he doesn’t lay down, I can’t afford that kind of performance.
“Martin has his own mind. He’s prepared how he wants to prepare, whether he wants to train on emotion, grit or experience. He has to find a way to beat me and that will be difficult for any fighters on the planet. I can sense frustration from Martin’s camp. We had two fights that fell through.
“I would be disappointed if I went in there and blew him away in one round. I need rounds for next year. I need to get in there, in the real thing, to go into the big fights next year. To get over that bridge I need to beat Martin Murray. He’s not one of those fighters you can ever completely write off.”
These are the only caliber opponents that Billy Joe Saunders would show up for. BJS said he didnt deserve the Canelo fight so doubt he really wants that fight.
He doesn’t want it, he ducked Andrade too
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Billy is a straight up Cherry picker ……. good boring boxer that lover picking Cherry’s cherry’s
he learned that from calzaghe hes gonna try and wait until the top guys get older than fight them
A corpse was found and allowed to have an opportunity to dispute a bogus world title.
Billy Joe Saunders is a good boxer, I won’t argue about that, but his lack of spirit is alarming. Saunders always find an excuse to avoid a marquee fight, a risky opponent, so, this wrong fighting attitude is a negative addition to his poor marketability.
Saunders vs. Murray has written all over snooze of the year.
I’m curious if this guy even has it at 168 at the elite level. He’s a reflex fighter and they always lose it eventually and he doesn’t really take care of himself in between fights. He looked sluggish last time and that’s another red flag. Usually reflex fighters will have fights their output is bad or low but still look sharp on their feet or have a few flash combos showing their speed. He had neither of those.
The title of this article is very misleading. It should be; Saunders needs to realize that many boxing fans have deliberately over looked him since his past few fights lack much luster.
Murray is way past it, He should be ashamed of himself for picking this fight.
is BJS even cleared of PEDs yet