Billy Joe Saunders

Billy Saunders
Data
Birth Name	Billy Joe Saunders
Fight name	Superb
Weight class	medium weight
nationality	British
birthday	August 30, 1989
place of birth	Hatfield
style	Legal display
size	1.80 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	29
Victories	29
Knockout victories	14th
Defeats	0
draw	0
No value	0
Profile in the BoxRec database

Billy Joe Saunders (born August 30, 1989 in Hatfield ) is an English boxer and current WBO world champion in super middleweight.

Amateur career

Billy Joe Saunders is one of England's greatest boxing talents. He lives in Waltham Abbey near London , is 1.80 m tall and started in welterweight (class up to 69 kg body weight). He started boxing as a child at the Hoddesdon Boxing Academie.

As a 17-year-old he won the 2006 4-Nations Welterweight Cup in Liverpool , beating Matthew Innes from Wales and Mike McGregor from Scotland . In the same year he also represented the English colors in an international boxing match against the USA and clearly defeated William Jackson on points (34: 8).

In 2007 he became European junior welterweight champion in Warsaw with victories over Michael Gurgacz, Poland , Ioannis Kimitsidis, Greece and Mladen Manew from Bulgaria . He also won the championship title at the Commonwealth Championships in Liverpool that same year . There he defeated William McLaughlin from Ireland (43:21) and Joseph Blackbourne from New Zealand (22: 8) on points and won over Gerard O'Mahony from Australia by breaking off in the first round.

In February 2008, Billy Joe Saunders surprised the professional world when he took first place in the welterweight division at the extremely well-attended Strandja tournament in Plovdiv / Bulgaria. He defeated the Cuban champion and Olympic starter Carlos Banteur (+24: 24), the Serb Alexander Spirko (34:10), the Kazakhs Kanat Orakbajew (28: 6) and Evgeni Borisow from Bulgaria (29:19) on points. Then he qualified in Pescara / Italy at the 1st European qualification tournament for participation in the Olympic Games in Beijing . In Pescara he defeated Russian champions Andrei Balanow (18:11), the Poles Michal Starbala (13:12) and Kahabaer Javina from Georgia (15: 5) on points. In the semifinals he lost to Alexander Stretskyy from Ukraine just on points (13:15) and defeated Pavel Havalka from Slovakia clearly on points (20:10) in the battle for the important third place, which entitles him to participate in Beijing .

In Cetniewo , Poland , he also won the European Union welterweight championship. He won over Tamas Sipos from Hungary by breaking off in the first round, over Mariano Hilario from Spain by breaking off in the third round and over Xavier Noël from France (14: 5) and Dieter Doehl from Germany (19: 6) Points.

At just 19 years old, Billy Joe Saunders was one of the youngest participants in the Olympic boxing tournament in Beijing. He clearly defeated Adem Kılıççı 14: 3 in the preliminary round , but this time retired in the round of 16 against the Cuban Carlos Banteur 6:13.

successes

• 2007; 1st place at the Junior European Championships in Poland
• 2007; 1st place at the Commonwealth Championships in England
• 2008; 1st place at the EU championships in Poland
• 2008; 3rd place in the European Olympic qualification in Italy
• 2008; 9th place at the Summer Olympics in China

Professional career

Billy Saunders turned pro after the Olympics and boxed middleweight . After 12 wins in a row, he won the Commonwealth title in April 2012 by knocking out Tony Hill in the first round. After two subsequent title defenses against Bradley Pryce and Jarrod Fletcher , he also won the title of British Champion by unanimously beating Nick Blackwell in December 2012. In March 2013, he defended the title against Matthew Hall.

In July 2013 he won the WBO International Championship after a unanimous victory over the undefeated Gary O'Sullivan. In September 2013 he also defeated John Ryder, who was also undefeated.

On July 26, 2014, he became the new European middleweight champion by knocking out the Italian Emanuele Blandamura (22-0). In November 2014 he managed to defend his title on points against Chris Eubank junior (18-0).

On December 19, 2015, Saunders boxed as a challenger for the WBO world middleweight title against Andy Lee (34-2) and won in Manchester by points judgment (114: 112, 115: 111, 113: 113). He won his first title defense in December 2016 against Artur Akavov (16-1).

On September 16, 2017, he defeated Willie Monroe (21-2) unanimously on points. He won another unanimous victory on December 16, 2017 against David Lemieux (38-3). In May 2019, he won against Shefat Isufi and became WBO super middleweight champion. In November 2019 he defended the title for the first time by knockout against the previously undefeated Argentine Marcelo Coceres (28-0).

List of professional fights

29 wins (14 knockout wins), 0 defeats (0 knockout defeat), 0 draws
year	Day	place	opponent	Result for Saunders
2009	February 28	National Indoor Arena , Birmingham, UK	Attila Molnar	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	May 15	The Odyssey , Belfast, UK	Ronny fork	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	July 18th	Manchester Evening News Arena , Manchester, UK	Matt Scriven	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	9th October	York Hall, London, UK	Alex Spitko	Points win / 4 rounds
	December 5th	Metro Radio Arena , Newcastle, UK	Lee Noble	Points win / 6 rounds
2010	May 15	Upton Park , London, UK	Andy Butlin	Points win / 6 rounds
	11th December	Echo Arena Liverpool , Liverpool, UK	Tony Randell	Victory / TKO 2nd round
2011	2nd of April	York Hall, London, UK	Turgay Uzun	Victory / abandonment 2nd round
	May 21	The O 2 , London, UK	Kevin Hammond	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	15th October	Echo Arena Liverpool , Liverpool, UK	Norbert Szekeres	Victory / TKO 1st round
	November 5th	Wembley Arena , London, UK	Gary Boulden	Points win / 10 rounds
	December 14th	York Hall, London, UK	Tommy Tolan	Victory / TKO 1st round
2012	April 28	Royal Albert Hall , London, UK	Tony Hill vacant Commonwealth Championship	Victory / TKO 1st round
	June 1st	York Hall, London, UK	Bradley Prycey Commonwealth Title Defense	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
	September 14th	York Hall, London, UK	Jarrod Fletcher Commonwealth title defense	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	15th December	ExCeL Exhibition Center , London, UK	Nick Blackwell vacant British Championship (BBBofC) Commonwealth title defense	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
2013	March 21st	York Hall, London, UK	Matthew Hall British title defense (BBBofC) Commonwealth title defense	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
	20th of July	Wembley Arena , London, UK	Gary O'Sullivan WBO International World Championship	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
	21st September	Copper Box Arena, London, UK	John Ryder British title defense (BBBofC) Commonwealth title defense	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
2014	26th of April	Phones 4u Arena, Manchester, UK	Emanuele Blandamura vacant EBU European Championship	Victory / KO 8th round
	November 29th	ExCeL Exhibition Center , London, UK	Chris Eubank junior EBU title defense British title defense (BBBofC) Commonwealth title defense	Point victory (polyphonic) / 12 rounds
2015	24th July	Wembley Arena , London, UK	Yoann Bloyer	Victory / TKO 4th round
	19. December	Manchester Arena , Manchester, UK	Andy Lee WBO World Championship	Point victory (majority decision) / 12 rounds
2016	3rd of December	Motorpoint Arena Cardiff , Cardiff, UK	Artur Akavov WBO title defense	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds

predecessor	Office	successor
Andy Lee	World Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBO ) December 19, 2015 -

swell

• Box Sport trade journal from 2006 to 2008,
• Website "www.amateur-boxing.strefa.pl",
• Website "www.olympics.org.uk"

Web links

• Billy Joe Saunders in the BoxRec database
• Short portrait of Billy Joe Saunders in engl. language