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Billy Joe Saunders
Saunders at Wembley Arena in 2011.
Born	(1989-08-30) 30 August 1989 (age 35) Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England
Nationality	British
Statistics
Weight(s)	Welterweight Light middleweight Middleweight
Stance	Southpaw
Boxing record
Total fights	14
Wins	14
Wins by KO	9
Losses	0
Draws	0
No contests	0

Billy Joe Saunders (born 30 August 1989) is a British professional boxer, who after a distinguished junior career qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He is the current Commonwealth champion at middleweight, and remains undefeated as a professional.

Career

Saunders lives with his family on a Travellers' encampment near Hatfield, Hertfordshire and fights for Hoddesdon ABC. Originally from Cheshunt, Saunders is the great-grandson of one of Britain's most famous Romany bareknuckle champions, Absolom Beeney. His father Tom, a former amateur, also admits to being involved in a bareknuckle scrap once "to sort things out, the way the Travelling community does".

The southpaw won his first 49 amateur fights at senior level in a row, including the Commonwealth Championships in 2007 and the Strandya Cup 2008 edging out Cuban Carlos Banteux.

In 2008 Saunders qualified for the Beijing Olympics in the Welterweight division at the age of 18. Saunders qualified at the European area qualifier in Pescara, Italy. He beat European champion Andrey Balanov and Kakhaber Zhvania, he lost his semi to Oleksandr Stretskyy before beating the Slovakian, Pavol Hlavacka for the all-important third spot. He went to Beijing as the first person from the British Romany Gypsy community to qualify for the games, where he was defeated in the second round of the welterweight division. He was subsequently suspended for "lewd behaviour", allegedly pertaining to an incident with a local woman during a pre-season training camp in France. In early December 2008, Saunders signed professional terms along with James DeGale and Frankie Gavin with Frank Warren.

Saunders made his professional debut on 28 February 2009 at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham against Attila Molnar. Saunders looked confident from the opening bell, landing hard combinations which were just too much for Molnar. In round two, a series of punches that landed flush on Molnar's chin caused the referee to stop the fight and save a dazed Molnar. He won his second fight by second round stoppage of Ronny Gabel and his third fight, also by second round stoppage, of Matt Scriven. On 9 October 2009, he had to go the full four rounds to outpoint Alex Spitko. Since his fight with Spitko Saunders has helped himself to five further wins. In May 2011 he scored an impressive second round knockout victory over Kevin Hammond. Saunders has since scored wins against Norbert Szekeres, Gary Boulden and Tony Hill, the last of these giving him his seventh professional knock-out victory and winning the Commonwealth middleweight belt.

Professional boxing record

14 Wins (9 knockouts, 0 decision), 0 Losses, 0 Draws
Res.	Record	Opponent	Type	Rd., Time	Date	Location	Notes
Win	14-0	Bradley Pryce	UD	12	2012-06-01	York Hall, London, United Kingdom
Win	13-0	Tony Hill	TKO	1	2012-04-28	Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom
Win	13-0	Tommy Tolan	TKO	1	2011-12-14	Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom
Win	11-0	Gary Boulden	PTS	10	2011-11-05	Wembley Arena, London, United Kingdom
Win	10-0	Norbert Szekeres	TKO	1	2011-11-15	Echo Arena, Liverpool, United Kingdom
Win	9-0	Kevin Hammond	TKO	2	2011-05-21	The O2 Arena, London, United Kingdom
Win	8-0	Turgay Uzun	RTD	2	2011-04-02	York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, United Kingdom
Win	7-0	Tony Randell	TKO	2	2010-12-11	Echo Arena, Liverpool, Merseyside, London, United Kingdom
Win	6-0	Andy Butlin	PTS	6	2010-05-15	Boleyn Ground, Upton Park, London, United Kingdom
Win	5-0	Lee Noble	PTS	6	2009-12-05	Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Win	4-0	Alex Spitko	PTS	4	2009-10-09	York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, United Kingdom
Win	3-0	Matt Scriven	TKO	2, 1:21	2009-07-18	MEN Arena, Manchester, United Kingdom
Win	2-0	Ronny Gabel	TKO	2, 1:16	2009-05-15	The Odyssey, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Win	1-0	Attila Molnar	TKO	2, 1:47	2009-02-28	National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, United Kingdom	Professional debut.

References

1. "CommonwealthChamps2007". Amateur-boxing.strefa.pl. Retrieved 2011-09-06.
2. "Strandjata2008". Amateur-boxing.strefa.pl. Retrieved 2011-09-06.
3. "BBC SPORT | Olympics | GB boxers secure Beijing places". BBC News. 2008-03-01. Retrieved 2011-09-06.
4. "European Olympic Qualifications - 1 - Pescara, Italy". Amateur-boxing.strefa.pl. Retrieved 2011-09-06.
5. Dennis, Chris (2008-03-18). "Bbc Sport". BBC News. Retrieved 2011-09-06.
6. "BBC SPORT | Olympics | Boxing | Boxer Saunders protests innocence". BBC News. 2008-08-21. Retrieved 2011-09-06.
7. "Boxing Results and Boxing News". BoxingNews365. Retrieved 2011-09-06.
8. "Billy Joe Saunders - Boxer". Boxrec.com. Retrieved 2011-09-06.

External links

• Boxing record for Billy Joe Saunders from BoxRec (registration required)
• "Billy Joe Saunders", n°53 on Time’s list of "100 Olympic Athletes To Watch"

Template:Persondata

• Welterweight boxers
• English boxers
• Romani boxers
• Boxers at the 2008 Summer Olympics
• Olympic boxers of Great Britain
• 1989 births
• Living people