By Scott Gilfoid: Billy Joe Saunders (22-0, 12 KOs) is unafraid of the punching power of WBO middleweight champion Andy Lee (34-2-1, 24 KOs) despite the success he has had recently in defeating dangerous opposition by knockout.
Saunders, 26, says he will stand and trade with Lee at times in their fight this Saturday night on December 19that the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK. Saunders says he doesn’t see Lee as having Gennady Golovkin type punching power, and he plans on getting in the trenches and slugging with him toe-to-toe.
“He [Lee] has a dangerous right hook but you actually have to be wary of all his punches. Still, even though he can hit, he’s no Gennady Golovkin and you will see me stand and punch with Andy Lee,” Saunders said via RingTV.com.
Lee only has a right hook that is dangerous. His left hand isn’t likely going to do the job against Saunders. Lee can punch a little with his left, but his real bread and butter punch is his right hook.
If Saunders can take that away from him, then I can see a case where we’ll see Lee taste defeat again. I think Lee is a one-trick pony at this point in his career, and not someone that can be counted on to win at the upper echelons unless he’s doing damage with his right.
“Andy brings strength, boxing ability and experience to the table but I’m going in there to outfox, outbox and outfight him,” said Saunders.
I think Saunders will be good for maybe six to seven hard rounds. After that, I see him gassing out like he did in his fight against Chris Eubank Jr. last year in November. One telling thing about Saunders is how thin and emaciated he’s looked this week while boiling down for the weigh-in on Friday.
Saunders looks painfully thin, and that tells me that he took an awful lot of weight off to get down to the fighting weight, if he even makes weight. Considering that Saunders weighed in at 173lbs for his last fight in July against Yoann Bloyer, I think the guy doesn’t belong fighting in the middleweight division any longer. If you compare how Saunders and Lee look right now, it’s like night and day. Lee looks like he can step inside the ring and fight right now. Saunders has the look of someone who has been either on a severe calorie restricted diet or has drained his system of water. Obviously, it’s the latter case. I think Saunders doesn’t truly belong at middleweight in terms of his body frame at this point in his career.
I’m not sure how much weight that Saunders gained back for that fight, but he looked like a cruiserweight in the ring against Bloyer that night. I suspect Saunders was somewhere in the 190s. The thing of it is he was not that fat. He just looked big. I think Saunders is a natural super middleweight or light heavyweight at this point in his career.
Saunders had a lucky break with the two postponements for the Lee fight, because that gave him more time to take weight off. Nevertheless, as thin as Saunders is this week, I think he is still really struggling with the weight something fierce. This could be an advantage for Lee if the fight goes the full 12 rounds, because I cannot see Saunders being able to fight hard for more than six rounds without having to hold like mad. Saunders is 26 now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4SmXpprTts
That is about the same age Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. started having problems making 160. If Saunders does not run out of gas against Lee, then I see him winning. I just do not see how Saunders will not fade in this fight because he looks dried out and stringy looking this week, and it’s not even Friday yet. My guess is Saunders will continue to boil down and look worse with each day until Friday.
“I will find a way to win this fight,” Saunders said. “I love fighting southpaws. I would rather fight a southpaw than an orthodox opponent. I don’t know about Andy but, from what I’ve seen, he’s always struggled a little bit with left-handers.”
It is nice that Saunders does well against southpaws, but it’s not as if he’s fought any actual good southpaws. If you look at Saunders’s resume, he has pretty much fought fodder opposition for most of his career. Saunders’ biggest win was over the badly flawed Chris Eubank Jr. last year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t4FZk00YL4
Other than that fight, Saunders has faced horrendous opposition of questionable talent. Saunders needs to see the Lee fight as his first true test against a southpaw and really his first true test in his career, period. You cannot count Eubank Jr. as any kind of test because he has so many holes in his game.
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