Golden Boy President Eric Gomez appeared on The Ak and Barak Show this weekend and subsequently aired his views on the Canelo vs Billy Joe Saunders situation.
Saunders has been suspended by the British Boxing Board of Control over a video storm brewed of his own making.
A fight with pound for pound king Canelo Alvarez, originally scheduled for May 2 in Las Vegas, is now hanging in the balance.
The WBO super-middleweight champion joked about domestic violence in a clip shared widely on social media. It was largely condemned by a section of the public.
This forced the BBBofc to intervene and take away the license of Saunders pending an explanation of his actions.
Gomez spoke openly during the interview and stated Saunders will have to take whatever punishment is dished out.
“I haven’t seen the video, but I heard about it. I saw the headlines and it doesn’t surprise me. He’s done stuff like that in the past,” Gomez told Sirius XM Radio.
“He’s an outspoken kid and he likes to fool around and play around. But you can’t fool around with that kind of stuff. Whether he was joking or whatever, I don’t know whether he was joking or not.
🎙️"There's certain things you can't joke about and what he did — he's gonna have to pay the price for it." — @makeawar reacts to Billy Joe Saunders' suspension + possibly not facing Canelo upon #boxing's return 🔊
@DAZN_USA @BoxingwithAk @TheBoxingBully
⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/MzBrArsgC0
— SiriusXM Boxing (@SiriusXMBoxing) April 2, 2020
“There’s certain things you can’t joke about. What he did, you know he’s gonna have to pay the price for it.
“As far as Canelo’s concerned, we have different plans in place for when all these restrictions are lifted. It’s going to be up to him (Canelo) what he wants to do.
“But yeah, if Billy Joe is ineligible and he isn’t going to be able to fight because of his suspension, then, of course, he’s going to be eliminated.
“There’s nothing we can do about it. He did that to himself.”
The World Boxing Organization is also considering its options. Should Saunders by banned formally by the BBBofC, WBO President Paco Valcarcel will surely move to strip Saunders of the title.
More will be revealed once Saunders gets in front of BBBofC chiefs, whether that’s via video conference of over a phone call – who knows at this month.
Everyone is on lockdown in the UK, leaving Saunders to potentially contemplate what might have been if Canelo moves on to Gennadiy Golovkin in September.
