Lee looked vulnerable when he returned to his feet and was soon on the canvas again after Saunders connected with another hook.
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“It’s been a team effort with me and my son Mark who’s handled the strength and conditioning, but Billy is the one who’s got to go out there and defeat Lee, who’s a tough, tough, man and take that world from him and I’ve got full confidence that he’ll do it”.
Speaking in the post fight press conference Saunders said: “I can’t believe it, I’m a world champion”. I’m a world champion.
While all analysis would have projected that any one punch power displays would have come from Lee, in the 3rd round, it was Saunders who scored with a massive blow.
By this stage, Lee’s work-rate did not appear to be high enough to impress the judges and the champion often seemed to be attempting to focus on setting up a looping left hook which failed to land. He looked both exhausted and extremely cautious, as if that right hand that Lee nailed him with in the last flurry of the second had taken all the motivation had out of his body. “I’m not going to start running my mouth, but it was a good shot”. The exchange reminded Saunders of Lee’s danger, having come from behind against Korobov and John Jackson in consecutive fights in 2014 before rallying to floor Quillin late in their April split draw. He didn’t hurt me, but I actually got Matt Korobov signs in my head.
“I thought he was going to be a big brawler, I thought he had better assets”, Jacobs said of Lee.
The remainder of the fight was contested at a awful pace.
Although Saunders, 26, was a deserving victor, Lee’s reaction to two knockdowns in the third round reflected the same stubborn resilience that defined his long journey to become world champion.
However, Lee was already well behind on the scorecards before he finally started coming forward in the latter rounds, but Saunders’ tight guard withstood the Irishman’s trademark power hooks throughout.
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“I’ve always said, no disrespect to him, you take the lead hand away from [Lee] and he [will have] been beaten three times”, Saunders said. “Some guys just got a little bit careless against him.” he added.
