Headline NewsPro News

Booth breaks down Lee versus Saunders

Billy Joe Saunders and his team will have to problem solve high level sudoku style this Saturday night suggests Andy Lee’s trainer Adam Booth.

Lee puts his title on the line against the undefeated mandatory challenger in Manchester in a highly anticipated match up.

While Saunders has the respect of team Lee the Limerick man’s coach claims when he compares the two middleweights his charge has all the attributes to cause the English puncher more problems.

Booth, who also trains Belfast’s Ryan Burnett, see’s Saunders as a worthy challenger for the World champ and has respect for his record, but believes the Frank Warren puncher has never face a fighter of Lee’s calibre.

“He has beaten some very good fighters and we don’t underestimate the quality of opposition he has beaten – Chris Eubank jnr, Nick Blackwell, John Ryder, ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan,” Booth said this week.

“So he has proved that he can beat competitive, decent men and he belongs as a mandatory challenger and it’s a great match-up in that sense because they’ve both proved their worth.

“But I know that Andy’s style isn’t good for Billy Joe and we are confident that all we have to focus on is what Andy’s going to do in that ring. In my mind’s eye – when I match up what I see with Andy with what I see with Billy Joe – the problems are in their court.

“It’s about having the right things and I believe that Andy has the right things to beat Billy Joe. What makes me confident is that I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get my head around Billy Joe – not just watching his fights but understanding how a style like that evolves from when he first put his fists up against somebody,” he added.

“I’ve seen nothing throughout the course of his career that has changed – it’s not like he has done an Arturo Gatti and completely changed his style. He has just become a more experienced, better version of what he has always been which has been more than enough to get him into a mandatory position to fight for a world title.

“But he has never been up against someone like Andy Lee.”

irishboxing

Integral part of the Irish boxing community for over 13 years

x