Has Billy Joe Officially Shown That He Is Elite

[Sheldon312]

He put on a boxing clinic last night and I was very impressed. He showed great footwork, defense, jab, pivot, left hand, and right hand. He has an argument for top ten p4p based off skills. What do you guys think?

[Thraxox]

No note yet, he has shown that he is a level above with the Lemieux's of the world, but being in the same class with the Canelo's and GGG's of the world is different. He hadn't shown that he's a level above Monroe who has the same style as him.

[Evil_Meat]

Regardless of how limited Lemieux is, I think it should be clear to everyone that BJS has elite level boxing skills.

[dan_cov]

No he hasn't. Elite gets thrown about way too much and should only be used for the best of the best.

[Regulus]

He put on a boxing clinic last night and I was very impressed. He showed great footwork, defense, jab, pivot, left hand, and right hand. He has an argument for top ten p4p based off skills. What do you guys think?

So David Lemieux is the standard for elite status??

Time to raise the bar my friend.

[Regulus]

No he hasn't. Elite gets thrown about way too much and should only be used for the best of the best.

Well said.

[TheBigLug]

Does a win over Lemieux make you elite? i wouldn't say so but the manner in which he did it was signs of a potentially elite fighter. There's stiffer tests out there than Lemieux.

He did just deal with a good world level opponent like an elite fighter would/should, but he has to do it over a few fights against world level opposition to be considered real elite i think. He's definitely has to be taken seriously in the MW division anyway. I think any MW fighter out there that felt Saunders might be an easy route to a title may think otherwise now.

Although it depends how you look at it. Even before the Jacobs fight, GGG was considered elite and a top p4p fighter but BJS wins over Lemieux, Lee, Monroe etc. are just the same calibre of wins as GGG's were at that time, and i say that as a big GGG fan. So if you want to be very fair, either Saunders is elite, or GGG shouldn't have been considered elite at the time.

[MeiXiang]

lol, what by beating Lemieux? Give me a break...fight someone that isn't a punching bag that just walks forward. Fight a Jacobs, a Charlo and then I'll be impressed if he comes through.

[Mammoth]

Possibly. He has wins over Eubank Jr, Andy Lee, David Lemieux, Willie Monroe and he was the first to beat that Gangs of New York looking dude from last night. He's could be but he doesn't normally beat people as wide as he beat Lemieux.

[RedZmaja]

He's a great fighter for the first 6 rounds but even in this Lemieux fight he started to slow down a bit. The thing is that Lemieux has poor cardio as well and didn't make any adjustments so he could exploit that. Also Lemieux had no jab, absolutely none.

GGG beats BJS by sticking his jab at him and cutting him off. BJS could win the early rounds against GGG but GGG has the jab, the cardio and the pressure to drag him into deep waters and win the second half of the fight.

Canelo beats him on scorecards in a close decision or even a robbery if needed.

Let's be honest, Lemieux getting 3 rounds by one of the judges last night is a proof that another case of Golden Boy shady judging was in play. Canelo gets a decision unless BJS totally schools him like Floyd which I don't think he can do.