Andy Lee and Billy Joe Saunders’ latest press conference was supposed to revolve around the pair’s upcoming Manchester clash on December 19th. Until Gennady Golovkin’s name came up and changed the course of conversation, that is.
“Yes, certainly,” said Lee when asked about a potential clash with Kazakhstan’s ‘GGG’. “If I come through against Billy Joe that’s the fight I want. No one else can pose the questions of Golovkin that I could.
“I can hit as hard as him and people freeze when they fight him, they’re scared, and the fear of being hit is worse than actually being hit.”
The bout would certainly make dollars, being the highest of paydays for both men should it come to fruition. And you can bet Golovkin would be interested since he’s on a mission to unify the Middleweight division straps. Lee currently holds a piece of that puzzle in the WBO title.
When the same question was posed to Saunders, the unbeaten fighter’s response was a candid one.
“If you’ve just won a world title you don’t want to then go and meet Golovkin,” Saunders said. “I’d be confident of beating him but maybe in 18 months I’d like that fight.”
And it’s an opinion Saunder’s promoter Frank Warren couldn’t have agreed more with.
“I wouldn’t let him have it,” Warren said adamantly. “Being able to do what needs to be done against Golovkin is hard. I’d want Bill to get more experience at world level. I believe if Bill comes through [against Lee] we’d look at the right route.”
Give us your take on these two potential Middleweight bouts, fight fans. Who would fare better against Golovkin? Andy Lee or Billy Joe Saunders? And could either actually do the unthinkable: beat him?
