By Terence Dooley
Wembley Arena, London - Hatfield’s Billy Joe Saunders (12st 5lbs 5oz) endeared himself to the feminist community this week when telling sportsjoe.ie that: “I think women are there for sex every night, hard sex,” when talk turned to Ireland’s Katie Taylor, a female boxer.
“Women are there for cleaning, cooking, washing and sex. They're not there to put headgear on and get punched in the face.”
He added: “Although I must say that Katie Taylor's done extremely well and she once punched Frankie Gavin up in sparring. I remember him saying that. Listen, all jokes aside. That's just my opinion on women. I'm just a sex maniac. I don't really like to see women getting punched in the nose and face, it's not very nice is it.
“I'm not taking anything away from them (female boxers). I'm giving them full respect because they've done things that I haven't done. They've won Olympic golds so I give them full credit.”
France’s Yoann “Derval le fennec” Bloyer (12st 3lbs 5oz) was in opposite corner tonight, with Taylor dishing out a jab to Saunders via Twitter, for a scheduled 10-threes warm-up for the 25-year-old, who has a meeting with WBO middleweight title-holder Andy Lee penciled in for September.
Despite taking a few right hands, Saunders dropped his man twice in the third only for the 32-year-old to see out the round.
A third knockdown followed in the fourth, prompting the end of at 0:53 of the session and sending Bloyer home with a 17-28-2 (3) slate. Saunders (22-0, 12 early) will now concentrate on Lee, who saw him up close from his vantage point at ringside.
“We’ll see each other in September,” said Lee, working as a pundit for BoxNation.
“We know I’m not in there with no Sugar Ray Leonard, I respect everyone who goes in the ring but he was there to give me a run out,” said Saunders.
“The hard work—blood, sweat and tears—will start (next week). Andy’s a very good fighter, but I’m there to smash him up and take the title from him in his own backyard. A good smart boxer will always beat a brawler, he won’t be landing no big punch on me.”
It was shades of Ant-Man in the next bout as Super bantamweights Lewis Pettitt (9st 2lbs 2oz) and Antonio “Maximus” Horvatic (9st 2lbs 9oz) followed Chisora into the ring for a 10-threes meeting.
The highly rated Pettitt was offered a crack at WBC titlist Leo Santa Cruz in May, but his team decided he needs more experience before vying for a world title.
Horvatic, 28, had lost three on the bounce coming in, two of them to British fighters here in the U.K. (L8 and L6 to Zahid Hussain and Sean Davies respectively). Was the Mohican rocking Croatian about to break his losing run?
No. London’s Pettitt, 25, forced referee Bob Williams to intervene at 2:40 of the seventh round. Horvatic’s only display of aggression came between rounds when he fired off a verbal volley at his cornerman, who was trying to give him advice.
Pettitt moves to 17-1 (7); his opponent falls to 7-19 and was stopped for the fourth time in his career.