By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBO 160lb contender Billy Joe Saunders (22-0, 12 KOs) will be facing WBO middleweight champion Andy Lee (34-2-1, 24 KOs) on December 19th in their rescheduled fight at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
Thus far, the Lee-Saunders fight has been postponed twice due to Lee suffering an illness and Saunders getting cut in training. Now hopefully the fighters can make it in the ring in one piece to finally face each other on 12/19 in Manchester. You never know though. Anything can happen when you’ve got two guys that are having problems while trying to make it to the ring. For Saunders, 26, it’s a good time that he’s getting more time to train because he looked really flabby in his last fight against Yoann Bloyer last July.
Saunders weighed in for that fight at 173lbs, and he looked a lot heavier than that when he stepped foot into the ring. My guess is Saunders was in his mid-180s for that fight, and that’s a lot of weight for a middleweight. By having the Lee vs. Saunders fight take place on December 19th, it gives Saunders more time to melt off the weight that he put on.
If Saunders can’t met it off by December 19th, then I don’t what’s going to happen. Hopefully not another postponement.
“The delay in the fight between me and Saunders has just made me more determined, if that is possible,” Lee said. “Once I have beaten him on the 19th December I can move on in my career and unify the titles.”
Lee has a very good chance of winning this fight simply by being the better conditioned fighter. We saw how Saunders ran out of gas against Chris Eubank Jr. in the second half of the fight last November. That was Saunders in the best shape possible and he still gassed out after 6 rounds. If Saunders is fading after six rounds against Eubank Jr, then what’s going to happen when he burns off all that lard he’s put on and faces Lee in December? I’ll tell what’s going to happen. Saunders will fight hard for maybe 4-6 rounds, and then totally gas out.
“My fans have been very patient and I’ll give them what they have been waiting for as a Christmas present, beating Saunders and remaining world champion,” Lee said. “I’m a proud man and I’m prepared to fight ‘tooth and nail’ to keep my title. Saunders is in for the fight of his life.”
Lee has been getting out-boxed in some of his recent fights against Matt Korobov and John Jackson. He was able to KO both of those guys to get the win, but it’s definitely not a good sign that he found himself behind in those fight. Lee even had to rally in his last fight against former WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin last April. Luckily for Lee, Quillin was coming off of a year layoff and failed to make weight because if Quillin had been in good shape, I think Lee would have lost that fight.
“We’re both fighting men and one of us isn’t going to be standing at the end, and that won’t be me,” Saunders said.
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