By Elliot Foster

Frank Warren has claimed to have offered Chris Eubank Jr. upwards of £1million to take the rematch with Billy Joe Saunders.

The Hertfordshire-based promoter, who runs Queensberry Promotions and recently teamed up with BT Sport alongside broadcaster BoxNation, revealed the news on social media.

It comes after Saunders –– the WBO middleweight world champion who returns in a defence against Russia’s Artur Akavov, exclusively live on BoxNation, on Saturday (December 3) at the Lagoon Leisure Centre in Paisley, Scotland –– was verbally sparring with former foe Eubank Jr., who he beat in a British, Commonwealth and European title contest two years ago.

Eubank Jr. (23-1, 18 KOs), the former WBA interim champion who didn’t eventually fight Gennady Golovkin despite chasing him and who was last in the ring in June, called Saunders “a British world champion that walks down any UK street [and] is unrecognised.”

The second generation middleweight recently vacated the British crown, citing an injury to his elbow, and withdrew from a mandatory defence of the belt against Tommy Langford.

After seeing the exchange of words between Eubank Jr. and Saunders (23-0, 12 KOs), Frank Warren –– or a member of his office –– took to Twitter to disclose that an offer had been made to Eubank Jr. for the rematch with Saunders, a fight which he is said to have turned down numerous times in the past two years.

“We recently submitted a seven-figure offer to you to challenge for Billy Joe Saunders’ WBO world title on BT Sport next year,” the first tweet read.

“The recent offer was made both to your manager and your personal email, so no one can say you haven't been made aware.

“As yet no one's given an answer to our offer. If you want the fight, kindly get someone from your team to pick up a phone [or] pen.”

Warren continued by stating that a win for Saunders, against Akavov on Saturday, would result in the Hall of Fame promoter “delivering [Saunders] a huge fight next.”

“If you want to be in the other corner,” Warren concluded, “you know what to do.”

Further details will be revealed in due course.