Billy Joe Saunders Vs Artur Akavov review

BoxingNews24.com

By Rob Maclean: Yesterday evening saw Billy Joe Saunders (24-0, 12kos) successfully defend his WBO middleweight title for the first time, since he defeated Andy Lee in December of last year in beating Artur Akavov (18-2, 7 KOs) at the Lagoon Leisure Centre, in Paisley, Scotland, United Kingdom. Understandably Saunders was sluggish, however in what should have been a simple victory against American based Russian Akavov soon turned into an extremely competitive struggle to keep his title.

The first two rounds began with a low scoring chess match between two southpaws, with Saunders probably doing enough, as challenger Akavov tried forcing the action however failed to land. However by round 3 Akavov found the target as Saunders languished on the ropes, Akavov landed a left to the top of Saunders head.

Round 4 so Saunders try and force the action more however for a fighter clearly struggling with fitness, Saunders was incredibly wasteful, particularly as he missed with 5/6 wild uppercuts throughout the night.

Akavov was more adventurous than Saunders and in Round 5 and found success from combinations. Round 6 again saw the Russian throw more and therefore land more than Saunders. What was incredibly odd was Saunders man in the corner telling him that he was boxing beautifully with his jab, however it was missing. His usual coach Jimmy Tibbs wasn’t guiding him in the fight which was notable.

Saunders just did enough in the coming rounds to edge an advantage from rounds 8 through 10. Round 10 saw Saunders finally step up his game and try and break Akavov however he survived. Saunders literally edged round 11 with the skin of his teeth, but lost Round 12 clearly, his stamina had been completely depleted. In fact I believe it was Saunders cut man who urged him to have a good round in the twelfth, possibly the only man in the corner who understood the urgency of the predicament.

Your reviewer scored the fight 116-112 to BJ Saunders, however if one was to mark some rounds to Akavov, for example the second and penultimate, bearing in mind the tightness of these rounds, it would be a valid argument.

Billy Joe was incredibly out of shape and now with the beauty of hindsight, one can understand why he turned down the fight with Gabriel Rosado. Saunders performance today would have allowed Rosado to pounce all over him and more than likely, stop him. Obviously if Saunders was at his best he would have been able to knock Akavov out today, without sounding derogatory toward the Russian, he had limited power and a defence that saw him back up in straight lines. Saunders fighting on the back foot was ultimately his downfall, if he was able to put on an extended amount of pressure Akavov would surely have crumbled.

Going forward Saunders needs at least 2 tune up fights to be slightly competitive with Golovkin. Saunders boxing ability is good, however this isn’t the first time Saunders has fought unfit. He needs to get in shape and defend against a pressure fighter like Rosado to be able to at least defend himself against the relentless ‘Triple G’, if that fight was to take place in 2017 or on-wards.