Saunders Vs Bursak & the GGG Problem

Saunders was offered a career high payday against GGG, declined and then criticised GGG for fighting Wade.

Saunders then opts to defend against Max Bursak, who is ranked 49th best MW by BoxRec and is 3-3 in his last 6 fights!

This is GGG's problem, he openly requests a fight with Cotto, but Cotto shuns him, he beats Lemieux to part unify the MW straps. Calls out winner of Cotto/Canelo. Canelo wins and give it his best fake macho impression post fight to only quickly back down and say the fight can wait and state he has right to defend the MW belt at pretty much division below!

WBC say Canelo can have one defense but you can bet the house on WBC not sticking to their word and letting Canelo continue defending against WW's and anyone BUT GGG or at 160ibs!

People moan that GGG has better options, however his first point of call is the very best but they decline so not his fault he ends up fighting opponents below his level.

Too many boxers are chasing money and not legacy. I wonder how many champions of this generation will be remembered? Not many IMO.

Saunders was offered £2.2m (by all accounts) to face Golovkin. He'll pick up, what, £0.2m against Bursak (who's been beaten by those pesky Geale/Murray types that Trussman rattles on about)?

And then Saunders declares he'll face Golovkin in the summer. Yeah right...

If you move away from the idea that any fighter who holds a strap is a "champion" and concentrate on those fighters who've proven themselves the numero uno in the division (Rigo, Fury, Gonzalez etc.) - they're the guys who'll be remembered.

Agree Haz, the prestige and respect of being a champion is substantially reduced now.

As you say, ignore strap ownership, just go on performances.

Valero's Conscience wrote:Agree Haz, the prestige and respect of being a champion is substantially reduced now.  

As you say, ignore strap ownership, just go on performances.

I'm a huge Frampton fan but, in 20 years time, when people ask how good he was he'll be hit with "he never fought Rigo" (in the same way McGuigan has Nelson hanging over him).

Boxing is getting worse.

I think it's a huge cop out. I am far more appreciative of a boxer who will happily take on all comers than someone who picks and chooses for whatever reason (weight, rematch clauses, "won't sell, TV networks etc).

It can nearly always be made to work - in a perfect world there should be one champion per weight and they should fight the highest available contender or be stripped. If there's a blatant duck it should show on their record.

Promoters are mostly to blame as they want to hold on to their cash cow. Look at Eu bank's WBO defences on the 90s. Not exactly top drawer were they? We know that he could hang tough (Benn, Watson) but instead he trod water and made easy money.

I would love to watch Canelo vs Golovkin or Stevenson vs Kovalev but I fear that both fights will not be made.

I doubt either of those get made either.

Golovkin has shown a touch of double standards with regard to fighting outside of middleweight (going up to '68 for some and not others; cutting to 154 for Floyd but not Canelo) but at middleweight he can't get a fight. No-one will fight him unless they're offered 10 times more than they usually get.

Who has he said he'd go to 168 for??!

From memory, despite an opending salvo when breaking through of "154 to 168", other than Floyd (every fighters meal-ticket and somebody who was champion AT 154, not Canelo being champ AT 160 but only fighting 155) GGG has been pretty unequivocal that his primary call is unifying 160 before worrying about moving weights.

He said he'd go to '68 for a big money fight (Froch or Chavez) but would only go to '64 for Ward.

That was undoubtedly a power move (to show Ward who was boss in negotiations) but it leaves him open to criticism.

At 160, though, no-one will go near him.

It's sad. Promoters are a disgrace now.

GGG might just have to move up. Khan might scare him away, if he calls him out.