The 28 year-old Briton proved his world class abilities at Place Bell on Saturday night and moved into the mix to face the top three fighters at the weight.
Those spots currently lie with Gennady Golovkin, Canelo Alvarez and Danny Jacobs, although Saunders could just be on win away from reaching the Top 20.
Murmurings of a potential co-feature against Jacobs at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on the GGG v Canelo II bill are already doing the rounds, only with doubts attached due to the fact that Eddie Hearn is the promotional power behind the American.
Recent interviews have seen Hearn and Saunders’ handler Frank Warren at loggerheads and would make an agreement all the more unlikely.
Saunders also punched himself into the reckoning to make the top twelve shortlist as voting begins for Fighter of the Year on Monday.
Here’s the current P4P Top 50
:
1 Gennady Golovkin [1-0-1] (4)
2 Vasyl Lomachenko [3-0, 3 KO] (6)
3 Terence Crawford [2-0, 2 KO] (5)
4 Canelo Alvarez [1-0-1] (8)
5 Mikey Garcia [2-0, 1 KO] (42)
6 Naoya Inoue [2-0, 2 KO] (11)
7 Keith Thurman [1-0] (16)
8 Jorge Linares [2-0] (12)
9 Juan Francisco Estrada [2-0, 1 KO] (13)
10 Srisaket Sor Rungvisai [2-0] (NE)
11 Leo Santa Cruz [1-0] (24)
12 Donnie Nietes [1-0] (17)
13 Anthony Joshua [2-0, 2 KO] (NE)
14 Deontay Wilder [2-0, 2 KO] (25)
15 Aleksandr Usyk [2-0 1 KO] (43)
16 Wanheng Menayothin [5-0] (27)
17 Sergey Kovalev [1-1] (7)
18 Carl Frampton [1-1] (10)
19 Kosei Tanaka [1-0] (20)
20 Kazuto Ioka [1-0] (19)
21 Adonis Stevenson [1-0, 1 KO] (23)
22 Errol Spence Jr [1-0, 1 KO] (NE)
23 Manny Pacquiao [0-1] (2)
24 Badou Jack [1-0-1, 1 KO] (38)
25 Abner Mares [1-0] (31)
26 Erislandy Lara [2-0] (26)
27 Roman Gonzalez [0-2] (3)
28 Gary Russell Jr. [1-0, 1 KO] (29)
29 Danny Garcia [0-1] (14)
30 Guillermo Rigondeaux [0-1] (7)
31 Ryan Burnett [3-0] (NE)
32 Jamie McDonnell [0-0] (22)
33 Gilberto Ramirez [2-0] (40)
34 Danny Jacobs [1-1] (32)
35 Jessie Magdaleno [1-0, 1 KO] (33)
36 Shawn Porter [1-0, 1 KO] (NE)
37 Rances Barthelemy [1-0] (41)
38 Miguel Berchelt [2-0, 1 KO] (NE)
39 Murat Gassiev [1-0, 1 KO] (48)
40 Terry Flanagan [1-0] (46)
41 Nonito Donaire [1-0] (36)
42 Luis Nery [2-0, 2 KO] (NE)
43 Lamont Peterson [1-0] (NE)
44 George Groves [2-0, 2 KO] (NE)
45 Shinsuke Yamanaka [1-1] (18)
46 Milan Melindo [2-0, 1 KO] (NE)
47 Billy Joe Saunders [2-0] (NE)
48 Jermall Charlo [1-0, 1 KO] (45)
49 Sadam Ali [3-0, 1 KO] (NE)
50 Rey Vargas [3-0] (NE)
