By Scott Gilfoid: WBO middleweight champion Andy Lee (34-2-1, 24 KOs) hasn’t faced #1 WBO Billy Joe Saunders (22-0, 12 KOs) yet, but he’s already counting it as a victory in the win column for their December 19th fight at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK. Lee, 31, says he wants to unify the middleweight titles by facing the other middleweight champs instead of sitting on his title and trying to milk his title like some of the other champions tend to do.
As far as Lee unifying the middleweight titles, the only champion at 160 that he has any real chance of beating is WBA “regular” champion Daniel Jacobs. That would be a very, very tough fight for the 31-year-old Lee, and I have my doubts that he’d win it.
Jacobs has fight on December 5th against Peter Quillin, and I see him losing that fight. Jacobs and Quillin are both managed by Al Haymon. I don’t think for a second that Haymon will give the green light to allow the Jacobs-Quillin winner to face Lee in a unification match.
Haymon will probably have the winner of that fight continue to defend the WBA title against guys like Caleb Truax and Sergio Mora, like we’ve been seeing. However, the loser of the Jacobs v. Quillin fight has a much better chance of getting permission to fight Lee, but then again why would Lee want to fight the loser of that fight?
“Once I have beaten [Saunders] on December 19, I can move on in my career and unify the titles,” Lee said. “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 isn’t in the position to assume that he’ll get past Saunders. That could prove to be a lot tougher fight for him that Lee suspects, because Saunders is one of those in and out type of fighters that doesn’t like to stand and trade.
Lee will need to time Saunders’ attacks so that he can nail him with his right hook. That punch has been bailing Lee out lately in all of his fights. If he can’t time Saunders perfectly to land that punch, then I see the 26-year-old fighter beating Lee.
“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 said.
It’s going to be a tough fight for Saunders for sure. The way he ran out of gas in the second half of his fight against Chris Eubank Jr last November was pretty said to see. Saunders looked like an old man.
If Saunders runs out of gas against Lee, then he’s going to take a beating and likely get knocked out in the 2nd half of the fight. Lee hits too hard and he doesn’t tire the way that Saunders does. Saunders has weight problems and he should really be fighting in the super middleweight division rather than at middleweight.
Saunders doesn’t have the kind of fighting style that traditionally gives Lee problems. Lee has had problems in the past against pressure fighters like Brian Vera and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Saunders doesn’t fight like that. He’s just a hit and run guy, who doesn’t like to get his feet wet in his fights by taking punches.
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