Saunders Beats Monroe Jnr on Points

Last night, at the Copper Box Arena, in East London, Billy Joe Saunders made a second successful defence of his WBO middleweight title.

The Hatfield fighter was matched against the American boxer Willie Monroe Jnr in a bout that had seen a lively weigh-in.

However, the same thing can?t be said about the fight.

In a contest that Saunders took the decision on the scorecards of all three judges, Monroe Jnr seemed intent to back-pedal for most of the contest, denying Saunders the chance to show what he could do.

The scorecards for the fight were announced as:

? 117 ? 111 (in favour of Saunders)
? 115 ? 114 (in favour of Saunders)
? 117 ? 112 (in favour of Saunders)

The win takes Saunders record to 25-0 but you could sense the frustration he felt when he spoke to the media after the bout, with the WBO middleweight title holder remarking,

‘There was stuff I wanted to try but if someone is running around on the back foot, it’s hard. Every time I wanted to meet him in the middle he would run, but I got the win and that’s the main thing.’

There was also an apology from Saunders son, Stevie, for the manner in which he behaved towards Monroe Jnr at the weigh-in.

Before the bout Frank Warren had talked about Saunders fighting Gennady Golovkin, in December, however, with the big fight in Las Vegas ending in a controversial draw, Warren might be looking for a new opponent for his charge.