Review by AllTheBestFights.com: 2016-12-03, disappointing fight between Billy Joe Saunders and Artur Akavov: it gets two stars.The undefeated Wbo Mw champion Billy Joe Saunders entered this fight with a perfect record of 23-0-0 (12 knockouts) and he is ranked as the No.5 middleweight in the world (currently the #1 in this division is Gennady Golovkin). He fought twice last year winning over Yoann Bloyer (=Saunders vs Bloyer) and Andy Lee (=Lee vs Saunders).
His opponent, Artur Akavov, has an official boxing record of 16-1-0 (7 knockouts) and he entered as the No.31 in the same weight class. He suffered his only loss when he faced Oleg Liseev in 2012, since then he has collected 11 victories beating Todd Manuel in 2016. Saunders vs Akavov is valid for the WBO World middleweight title (Saunders’ first defense). Watch the video and rate this fight!
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Date: 2016-12-03
Where: Lagoon Leisure Centre, Paisley, Scotland, UK
Division: middleweight (160 lbs, 72.6 kg)
Title: WBO World middleweight title
Saunders’ previous fight: Andy Lee vs Billy Joe Saunders
Saunders’ next fight: Billy Joe Saunders vs Willie Monroe Jr
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Video: (Free embeddable video hosted on Youtube and not uploaded by AllTheBestFights, to report it please visit this link where the video is hosted)
6-2-1 through 9 for AA guy so looking at outcome no reason to watch the last 3 rounds. Last 4 weeks have been early Xmas presents for some fighters. Quillen should try to get a fight with Saunders. After this we know he will not be fighting Golovkin.
What a shambles. I skipped around in the fight, but what I saw of Saunders looked like half the fighter last seen beating Andy Lee. While some of this can be blamed on inactivity, maybe he’s lost interest and dedication, too.