Middleweight warrior Gabriel Rosado has once again laid into reigning WBO champ Billy Joe Saunders. Fans may recall how Saunders was offered a fight with Rosado for the Canelo-Smith card, only for Saunders to turn the fight down, saying it wouldn’t elevate his career. Rosado, 23-9(13) was fuming and he now says that Saunders is chasing money and nothing more and that the unbeaten southpaw only wants a fight with Gennady Golovkin for the big money that would be involved.
Speaking with Mail Online, Rosado, who has fought a number of top names including GGG, David Lemieux and Peter Quillin, said he still hopes to fight Saunders one day.
“Billy Joe has no interest in defending the title, he just wants to capitalise and make money off it” Rosado said. “If he wanted to defend the title like a true champion, he would have come to the states like [Joe] Calzaghe and [Ricky] Hatton and proved to the American people he is a star. He chooses to hold the title hostage and go for the money. This is what it comes down to. We plan on knocking out [Willie] Monroe (on the Canelo-Smith card this Saturday) and then maybe we will fight Billy Joe in the UK.”
Saunders, set to see action against a TBA on the October 29 Fury-Klitschko II card, has just called out GGG, saying he is “ready” to take the fight as soon as it is offered to him. But Rosado says Saunders is only chasing this fight for the money.
“He knows Golovkin wants that [WBO] belt bad,” Rosado continued. “He wants that really bad, they will offer him [Saunders] a few million and he thinks, ‘I’ll take that ass whupping for a couple of mill.’ That is the reason, they will give him three or four million for that belt.”
Golovkin does very much want to unify all the middleweight titles, and the only belt he does not yet own is the WBO strap held by Saunders, but not yet defended this year. It’s really was a strange move for Saunders to turn down the Rosado fight, and with it a spot on the big Smith-Canelo show in Texas, when this bout would have boosted his profile in the US.
Maybe Saunders really believes he has the beating of GGG and he wants that fight, and that fight only.
