ONE NIGHT, ALL THE BELTS

Fighter Diary by Billy Joe Saunders

In his latest exclusive diary entry, world champion Billy Joe Saunders studies the form ahead of the other fight taking place on September 16, following on from his defence of the WBO world middleweight title against Willie Monroe jr at the Copper Box

ON SEPTEMBER 16, first in London and then Las Vegas, a true middleweight pecking order will be put firmly in place.

I’ve got my second defence of my WBO world middleweight title against the extremely capable – but a little bit suspect, in my opinion – Willie Monroe jr at the Copper Box, before the eyes of the world will turn towards the T-Mobile Arena.

It is there where we will discover who exactly is the form horse out of the two thoroughbreds Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez, with the other three world middleweight championship belts at stake – depending on whether the WBC strap remains on the line or not.

It is a build up I have been watching closely for obvious reasons and it is in front of the television watching BoxNation where you will find me after my fight is done on the 16th, all being well, of course.

I have got a big interest in the fight because I want the chance to fight the winner and unify the middleweight division. Golovkin has said in the past that he wants all the belts. Well, I want them too.

What won’t happen, as I said the other week, is me putting myself in limbo again waiting around for a fight that may or may not happen.

When I get past Monroe my intention is to keep busy and carry on training towards a fight in December, whoever it may be against.

That is my mindset now and if Golovkin or Canelo want to fight me, fine, if not I will force the fight by continuing to win.

What I will say from watching the early training videos is that Canelo looked to have a little bit of snap missing from his work.

We will soon see and it is still a 50-50 fight, but he just appeared a little bit flat. Whether he gets it round in time, I don’t know, but he just didn’t look right to me.

I have been jumping back and forth with my predictions up to now. At first I fancied Golovkin, then Canelo and I will probably switch horses a few more times.

If you ask me who I want to win, I would say Golovkin.

It is not so much that I would rather fight him than Canelo, it is more the fact that he is the man who everyone thinks is Mr Invincible, which he has proven to be up to now.

It is for that reason he is the one I would like to beat.

Look out for Billy Joe’s fifth diary entry next week