At the Manchester Arena last night, the Hatfield middleweight, Billy Joe Saunders, fulfilled his destiny to become the WBO world middleweight title holder.
Saunders took a majority decision against the defending champion Andy Lee, after 12 action packed rounds.
Once the dust had settled and both boxers were stood either side of the referee, in the ring, the scores announced were:-
? 115-111 (in favour of Saunders)
? 114-112 (in favour of Saunders)
? 113-113 (a draw)
The fight started with Saunders having the better of the opening action, taking the first two rounds and even having the impudence to do a jig of delight when the bell sounded at the end of the second round.
The third round was to be the most explosive of the fight with Saunders having the champion on the canvas twice, on both occasion it was powerful right hooks that were Lee?s undoing.
But, with victory almost in his grasp, Saunders appeared to ease off in the fourth and fifth and it was Lee who started to come into the fight with a hard left hook.
As we entered the second half of the fight Lee clearly wasn?t doing enough and Saunders was in control. Lee always seemed prepared to throw his left hand but rarely did so, Saunders was boxing beautifully and his movement never gave Lee the opportunity to catch him cleanly.
As the eleventh round came to a close Lee did catch Saunders with a left but it was too little too late and although Lee launched an assault in the twelfth it was never serious enough to trouble Saunders who was now set to be crowned the WBO middleweight world title holder.
Saunders Gets Decision over Lee to Claim WBO Title
