Billy Joe Saunders vs. Artur Akavov this Saturday

By Boxing News - 11/29/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (23-0 12 KOs) will be finally be making his first defense of his title this Saturday night on December 3 against #10 WBO Artur Akavov (16-1, 7 KOs) at the Paisley Lagoon Centre in Glasgow, Scotland.

It’s good that Saunders is finally getting around to defending his title, because it’s been WAY too long for someone that won his title a year ago on December 19 in beating Andy Lee. You can argue World Boxing Organization really gave Saunders a HUGE break by not pulling the trigger in stripping him of his WBO strap, because the WBO wasted no time in stripping Dem
Saunders canceled one title defense against Max Bursak after suffering an injury that erased their April 30th fight.

Saunders had a chance to fight on Saul Canelo vs. Liam Smith card on September 17, but he failed to do so. Saunders opted not to take on any of the options offered to him by Golden Boy Promotions.

Not long after Saunders was scheduled to fight Akavov on October 22, it was Saunders would need the fight to be rescheduled to November 26 due to him suffering an injury. A week ago, that fight too was rescheduled to December 3 because of Akavov having paper work problems. We can only hope that this is the final time that Saunders postpones, because it’s tiresome at this point.

Saunders is reportedly a big 50:1 favorite to beat Akavov, according to Fight News. I’m not surprised, because Akavov has fought nobody of quality yet he’s already been beaten by a fighter named Oleg Liseev (6-2, 4 KOs). Great record, eh? Akavov’s last five wins have come against these obscure fighters: Todd Manuel (11-10-1), Freddy Lopez (9-2), Michel Mothmora (27-23), David Makaradze (21-8-1) and Sebastian Skrzpcynski (11-9-2). What’s unclear to me is why in the world has the WBO ranked Akavov in their top 15 in the first place?

I do not see anything in Akavov’s resume or his background that would suggest that he rates to be ranked in the WBO or any of the sanctioning bodies’ top 15. None of the other sanctioning bodies have Akavov ranked in their top 15. It’s just the WBO. What’s interesting is the WBO has Akavov ranked over quality fighters like Curtis Stevens and Sergey Derevyanchenko.

Saunders recently said that after he gets the Akavov fight out of the way, he’ll be moving to “a blockbuster fight in 2017.” I’d really like to know which fight that will be. I can’t imagine Saunders fighting anyone other than Saul Canelo Alvarez, because he has the HBO pay-per-view apparatus behind him. The other fighter that is very interested in facing Saunders is IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, but he’s not a PPV fighter.

Golovkin’s management is not likely going to be able to be able to come up with the money needed to get a fighter like Saunders to agree to fight him. It’s pretty much going to be Canelo. In other words, Saunders will be the equivalent of Liam Smith 2.0.

I think Saunders might last a little bit longer than Liam Smith due to his ability to get around the ring to avpid shots, but he’s still going to lose the fight to Canelo just the same. Saunders doesn’t have the stamina or the punching power to beat the likes of Canelo. Saunders’ last fight against Andy Lee was a classic example of him gassing out.

Saunders did well in the first half of the fight, but then gassed out after six rounds and lost most if not all of the last six rounds. The only reason why Saunders didn’t lost the fight was because he had knocked Lee down twice earlier in the fight. Lee fell way behind in the fight and needed to score some knockdowns or a knockout to win. That didn’t happen, so he lost the fight.

The Saunders vs. Akavov fight comes down to these areas:

– Power – This goes to Saunders. He hits harder than Akavov.

– Speed – Saunders has the advantage in this area as well. Akavov has slow hand speed.

– Mobility – Saunders is the much more mobile fighter. Akavov is more of a plodder.

– Experience – There’s no comparison between the two fighters in the experience department. Saunders has faced two good opponents in Chris Eubank Jr. and Andy Lee. I have no idea who the guys Akavov are all about. Just based on their records, they appear to be awful fighters. I don’t know why the 30-year-old Akavov waited this long to step it up against a better fighter. It’s never a good sign when you have a guy fighting weak opposition throughout their career and they finally step it up against a champion. But then again, Saunders is a weak champion in my view, and not really a champion in the classical sense of the word. I see Saunders as more of a belt holder rather than a champion.

– Boxing skills – Saunders is the better fighter by far compared to Akavov.

With all the time that Saunders has held the WBO belt without defending it, I was hoping that he would fight a good opponent rather than a lower level contender. I’m not surprised that Akavov was picked out. Saunders reportedly will need to fight two consecutive mandatory challengers after the Akavov fight. However, the WBO is doing Saunders a favor by ordering him to face mandatories for his next two fights, because this means that Canelo can move up and jump to the front of the line immediately to get a title shot against Saunders, given that he’s the WBO junior middleweight champion.