“Lemieux, the former IBF champion, previously had a habit of steamrolling opponents, but struggled to lay a glove on Saunders, who boxed on the back foot throughout. One Lemieux punch missed so wildly that Saunders mocked him, standing still to look into the crowd in search of where it landed. He picked off the Canadian for the first half of the fight and then punished him with hard shots in the second half for a unanimous points victory . . . It was by far the best performance of Saunders’s life. Just 12 months ago, his career looked to be on the rocks as he scraped past Artur Akavov at a leisure centre in Paisley, but now he looks fit and motivated once more. “I look easy to hit, I look easy to hurt, I look easy to put down, I look like I run out of gas, but you can’t hit me.”
RON LEWIS, THE TIMES
“The ease of the victory – and the style with which he won – proved beyond any doubt that the undefeated fighter, who moved to 26 consecutive wins, belongs in a ring with the division’s other two stars: Gennady Golovkin and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez . . . It was a virtuoso showing in every way, Saunders toying with the dangerous Lemieux in his home town, leaving the challenger bewildered with dazzling footwork and the best counter-punching display of his career . . . Saunders landed 165 of 430 punches, while Lemieux was limited to landing only 67 of 356 . . . Frank Warren said: “It has to rank as the best performance by a British boxer I’ve witnessed abroad, alongside Tyson Fury beating Wladimir Klitschko in Germany.”
GARETH A DAVIES, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
“(Saunders) told the Kazakhstani (Golovkin): “Golovkin, you kept saying you wanted my WBO belt when I was 14 stone, out of shape and wasn’t in love with boxing. Then you wanted to fight me. Fight me now ‘cos we’ll be seeing a different story. You’ll be punching fresh air.”
DAVID ANDERSON, DAILY MIRROR
“Billy-Joe Saunders retained his WBO middleweight title with one of the finest overseas performances by a British boxer in living memory.
“The mercurial 28 year-old went through his full repertoire of boxing skills to leave former world champion David Lemieux chasing shadows throughout.
“The decision was booed by the 10,000 strong pro-Lemieux crowd, who were almost as frustrated by Saunders’ hit-and-move brilliance as the challenger was.”
DECLAN TAYLOR, DAILY MAIL
“By the fifth, Saunders began taunting Lemieux for his misses, bringing boos from the crowd . . . the masterclass went on.”
BOXING NEWS ONLINE
Billy Joe Saunders 😂🙈
The Champ dodges a big right hand then looks out into the crowd to see where it landed!
They are not impressed!#SaundersLemieuxpic.twitter.com/24uScxTx3P
— Boxing on BT Sport 🥊 (@BTSportBoxing) December 17, 2017
“Saunders promised to “school” his Canadian opponent and that is exactly what he did, outclassing Lemieux from start to finish to earn his most impressive career victory. There was no danger signs, not even the remotest of clean punches landed from Lemieux in the entire fight as he was forced to chase shadows from the first bell to the last . . . Saunders puts himself on the Middleweight map with this victory, utterly bamboozling a foe they claimed was at least an equal if not a favourite with some bookmakers. He deserves the big fights now and will be in line to square off against either Canelo Alvarez or Gennady Golovkin sometime in 2018.”
SECONDS OUT
“(Saunders said): “Listen, I’ve never heard a crowd so against me in my life but I came in the ring singing and I left singing.
“I knew what was going to happen, I knew we’d shut them all up.”
DECLAN TAYLOR, THE SUN
Billy Joe Saunders. "I knew what sort of fighter David Lemieux is, and I knew what sort of coach he's got. I knew what he was coming for. I look easy to hurt, but you can't hit me. I like going to somebody's backyard because I perform better” #LemieuxSaunderspic.twitter.com/Q81T0TmzuY
— Boxing Insider.com (@BoxingInsider) December 17, 2017
“This time last year I was an absolute disgrace in Scotland and I would never jump in the ring again with a performance like that but that’s all down to one man and one man only – Dominic Ingle in Sheffield. If it wasn’t for him my boxing career would be finished and over.”
DAILY EXPRESS
"I WANT GOLOVKIN!"
A boxing masterclass from Billy Joe Saunders 👏
He knows who he wants next 👀#SaundersLemieuxpic.twitter.com/IGhOQ8P606
— Boxing on BT Sport 🥊 (@BTSportBoxing) December 17, 2017
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