By Alexey Sukachave
Former British Olympian Billy Joe Saunders (18-0, 10 KOs) continued to collect various minor titles tonight at Wembley Arena, where he has soundly defeated WBO #4 middleweight Gary O'Sullivan (now 16-1, 10 KOs) for the Irishman's WBO International title, spoiling an unbeaten record of the latter in process. Scorecards were quite telling: 120-109 (twice) and 119-109 - for the British fighter. BoxingScene had it a notch closer: 118-111 - also for BJ Saunders.
The fight wasn't really very impressive. The WBC #12 Saunders, with his gloves at his waist, fighting out of the southpaw stance, was giving O'Sullivan every possible sort of trouble with his superior elusiveness, speed and reflexes.The Irishman didn't look desperate or disappointed - he just couldn't let more than one punch at a time, and those times were vanishingly rare in majority of the rounds. He did have a moment in the first with a perfect left hook but Billy joe easily survived this scare. Jabs and stinging body combos were primary weapons for the British boxer, while O'Sullivan struggled to place his hands at the target. His ring movements were reasonable but their speed was poor. He also couldn't set his aim at Saunders - thanks for the speed and jabs of the latter. O'Sullivan's best moments came in round five and at the very end of the collision, when Billy Joe Saunders simply lost his interest. All the other moments were clearly in the Brit's favour.
