It was real will-o'-the-wisp stuff, lovely performance. He boxed as perfectly as you could wish to see him box a David Lemieux. I'm not going to go mad in acclaiming it, though, precisely because it was David Lemieux. When I described his fighting as "primitive" in a previous thread, I was being polite. He's only been puffed up as something more than a C-level guy by those with a financial or fanatical investment in Golovkin. His punch is all he brought to the table, and Billy always had the stuff to utterly negate that so long as he came motivated and thoroughly prepared. Still, though, it earned wider recognition of Saunders' skills, which I gather was his main drive in being so open to taking his show on the road. I find Lederman clueless often, but he's a venerable industry personality, and it was pleasing to hear him swooning over Billy's boxing like that. Lemieux doesn't have near the degrees of counterpunching ability to pull it off. There's no way he's winning that kind of game with Billy Joe Saunders. Then he loses just the same and gets pilloried for what many will view as a half-assed effort. Sometimes you're just tailor-made for another guy's boxing, whichever way you try to approach it.
It was a career best win and career best performance. It shows how good he can be when he is motivated, and he is one of those who fights up to the size of the fight. He now needs only big fights. If he takes a lesser fight, he could easily lose motivation and end up losing...
spot on i predicted a Lemieux victory, because in my view, for Saunders to win, he would need a personal-best performance, and that's especially hard to pull off given that his last few fights indicated a downward trajectory--in terms of motivation, fitness, and skill on display. i didn't think he had another Andy Lee fight in him, let alone what he did tonight BJS obviously wants GGG (and GGG wants BJS and has for some time) assuming Canelo doesn't lose his nerve or pen then GGG is busy with Canelo III in early May, so earliest a fight with Saunders gets made is July 2018 that's seven months away, so until then, there's plenty of time to see BJS versus any of Sergiy Derevyanchenko Charlo (Jermall) Jacobs Murata any of these would be a step up for BJS (i don't think Lemieux, Lee, or Eubanks Jr is the equal of any of these four) BJS 1.0 would just sit and wait for GGG and not risk a defeat, but maybe not BJS 2.0; and i hope that's the case because any of these would be great fights
yeh BJ is def world class now, no denying it. Hes a bit of a stickinthemud southerner but certainly not a loudmouth londoner. Lemieux was a bit exposed tbh as a banger who didnt know what a southpaw was. YUP UK.
Superb fight plan by Ingle camp...ironically it reminded me at times when Barrera schooled Naz, as we know is an Ingle fighter. BJS was brilliant & kept his focus, thats why he won. TBH future fights between Alvarez or GGG...I'm a GGG fan but imo I think out of the 2, Alvarez has the tools to beat BJS , this BJS ... I'm not so sure GGG would do much better ? I think the 2 to bother BJS would be Alvarez & Jacobs. Still well done BJS & the Ingle camp!
A fit and motivated BJS is elite, all Brits knew this anyway. He can go life and death with GGG or Canelo.
That performance put him in top 10 p4p for me. Problem he may have is finding someone to fight next. Canelo GGG rematch is likely due the money. I don't see Jacobs/Charlo/Andrade wanting anything to do with BJS.
I think at this stage you'd have to say Saunders has been underrated in the grand scheme of things. I see guys like Jermall Charlo in p4p lists, well BJS has the better resume to me.
BJS The Matador stunning performance. training differently, living right and he even reads poetry !! This content is protected
Prior to BJS vs DL GGG was an upper elite class & BJS was a lucky peasant on borrowed time After BJS vs DL GGG is an upper elite class & BJS is elite, GGG still a level above him, but the gap in class is a step that can be lost by aging on GGG side & improvement on BJS side