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One Word To Describe Billy Joe’s Performance? ‘Masterclass’, Writes Glenn McCrory

Written by Glenn McCrory on 18th December 2017.

In his biggest fight to date and his biggest test so far WBO World middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders put on by far his best performance and a true masterclass of boxing skills when he schooled the hard punching Canadian challenger David Lemieux in 12 one-sided rounds.

It was an excellent display of skill, movement and boxing prowess at the very highest level throughout, where Saunders was never in the least bit of trouble and finally came of age in the highly regarded middleweight division.

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Saunders was confident enough to defend his title in Lemieux’s backyard of Quebec, Canada in front of a hostile crowd, but was never fazed by the job in front of him. As the first bell sounded Saunders was quick to land with a sharp long jolting southpaw right jab, then moved away quickly.

He had been billed from the steel city of Sheffield in the introductions where he is now based for training and it was evident from the offset that his hard work under the very capable hands of Dominic Ingle was paying huge dividends.

As he slipped and countered then glided left and right there was more than a hint of several of the boxing greats that have crossed the threshold of the Winkobank talent factory. Herol Graham, Johnny Nelson, Naseem Hamed, to name a few who bore that same confidence that Saunders was effortlessly now portraying.

Variety is the spice of life and Saunders displayed plenty from lead right uppercuts, slick right-left combinations on the back foot early in the fight to getting on the front foot in the later rounds putting Lemieux under pressure with hurtful left hooks.

It was never a fight as it takes two to tangle, but much more of a defining performance from the 28 year old Saunders who was always in control, choreographing every move in defence or when he decided it was his time to take the lead.

Lemieux came into this fight very confident having only lost one bout in his last 14 and that being to pound for pound great Gennady Golovkin 2 years ago, and with a huge home crowd behind him and support of promoter Oscar DeLaHoya’s Golden Boy it was thought he could lift the crown from a Saunders who looked to be going nowhere 12 months ago after an awful laboured defence over Artur Akavov in Scotland.

This was never to be Lemieux’s night however, and the man who has knocked out 28 of his 38 wins inside 3 rounds was left punching air and missing so widely even Saunders had to put glove to his forehead in the 5th round looking into the crowd “where did that go” in comic fashion, but more realistically summing up the huge gap in skill.

Lemieux would continue swinging and pushing forward in a desperate attempt to finally catch up with an excellent Saunders but would not ever come close. At the final bell, the Canadian looked angry, frustrated, well and truly out boxed and taken to school going down by wide margins on all the judges cards.

Billy Joe Saunders who as a talented 18 year old teenager was good enough to represent Great Britain in the Olympics, then moved on to British, Commonwealth, European and WBO World Champion in his professional career has always shown great talent but now with real hard commitment one has to wonder, what can he go on to achieve in a very bright future?

When looking down the list of current claimants to number one middleweight status you would be forgiven for not putting Saunders in the mix of with Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez, but after his latest performance, Billy Joe Saunders might yet prove to be the best of them all.

Boxers And Promoters React To ‘The Billy Joe Show’ After The WBO Champion’s Dominant Win

The Press Reacts To Saunders’ Victory Over David Lemieux

Report: Saunders Puts On A Career Best Performance Against Lemieux