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| Saunder's days on the margins are over. |
Billy Joe Saunders, who holds one piece of the middleweight title pie, was seen as a marginalized nuisance. Sure, he was undefeated, but he won his WBO championship against Andy Lee in 2015 and had only defended it twice, once in far from impressive fashion. To make matters worse, it appeared the man had little interest in facing middleweight kingpin Gennady Golovkin unless some kind of massive payday was involved. Yeah, publicly at least, Saunders didn't seem like much of a sportsman. And people, they piled on - myself included.
This past Saturday, however, a new Saunders - or perhaps the Saunders none of us knew existed - showed up in Canada to take the popular and hard hitting David Lemieux to school. In a performance that can almost be described as Lomachenkoesque, the slick Saunders made the former GGG foil looks almost amateurish. And, after completely shutting his man down, the Englishman made it clear he was ready for all comers. Saunders also, in the process of a Max Kellerman interview, made it clear he hadn't been too keen on himself until fairly recently.
Needless to say, Saunders should be impressed with himself now. The rest of us certainly are after Saturday night. Going into a high ranking slugger's backyard and pitching a shutout? Impressive stuff. The question now is just how good is this man? He certainly looked high end against Lemiuex, but no one knows how Saunders will look against the likes of Golovkin, Canelo or Jacobs until he actually faces those men. Here's where the situations is now, though:
People are suddenly eager to see Saunders take on the big names, not as a belt holder, but as a real challenge. Talk about upping one's image.
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