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Wednesday, 25 May 2011

Hard hitting Billy Joe Saunders wins in two rounds at the 02

It took just one and a half rounds for Billy Joe Saunders to register his ninth professional victory as he impressively dispatched Kevin Hammond in front of a capacity crowd and Sky Box Office cameras at the 02 Arena on Saturday night.
VICTORIOUS: Billy Joe Saunders celebrates at the 02

The 21-year-old, who lives on a travellers' site near Essendon, was the first fight on the undercard of the Nathan Cleverly/James DeGale bill, promoted by Frank Warren, and he proved a popular winner with the crowd as the referee was forced to stop the fight midway through the second round.

Hammond, whose last five fights - all defeats - had gone the distance, provided little by way of resistance from the opening bell, but that was all credit to Saunders who showed few signs of rustiness despite only having last fought in April.

After initially sizing each other up, Saunders soon went on the attack, landing a series of excellent salvos to Hammond's body, the power of which left those at ringside whooping in appreciation.

Saunders then unleashed a couple of good right/left combinations finding their target at the side of Hammond's exposed head.

Cornerman Jimmy Tibbs encouraged Saunders to really go for it, as the former Hoddesdon and Cheshunt amateur boxing club ace sat down to take a well earned breather.

Saunders took the advice to heart and went straight at Hammond from the second round bell.

He forced his opponent onto the ropes, and while this first barrage didn't do too much damage, Hammond appeared rattled, and a second exchange of well-aimed blows saw the referee force a standing count.

It didn't take long for Saunders to finish Hammond off.

Sensing Hammond's legs were buckling he delivered another couple of upper cuts and body punches, and Hammond was on his knees leaving the referee little option but to stop the fight.

Saunders milked the applause of the crowd, going to all four corners raising his hands in celebration.

Speaking to the Mercury from his dressing room moments after the fight, an over-the- moon Saunders said: "I took him to pieces, I had a really great fight."

There were no worries about the hand injury which had kept him out action since May last year, before his victory over German Turgay Uzan.

"I didn't feel it all. It was great to fight here at the 02, I wasn't nervous at all and just got on with the job. He couldn't respond to anything I threw at him."

Also in the dressing room was proud father Tom, who said: "In all honesty, I didn't think he would do it as easily as that. I thought it would go the distance.

"I'd like to thank all the supporters from Hoddesdon, Cheshunt and Hatfiled who've travelled here tonight to support Billy Joe. They were great."

Saunders will next be in action on July 9 on the undercard of Kevin Mitchell's fight.

Trainer Tibbs told us: "It was a good performance. Hammond has never been stopped, he's a tough fighter. I told Billy Joe to fight at his own pace, and it was just too much for Hammond.

"Billy Joe has been working really hard in the gym, his hand is healthy."

However he paid down talk of a possible title fight against English super-middlewight champion Paul David.

"I'm not too worried about getting a title fight for Billy Joe yet. He's young, he's only 21. If you look at DeGale he's 24, but it would be nice to give Billy Joe a bite at the cherry at some stage."



Friday, 6 May 2011

Billy Joe Saunders "This Will Be My Big Fat Chance To Set The Record Straight"


Billy Joe Saunders has recently moved out of his caravan into a bungalow


BILLY JOE Saunders is on a double mission to win the world super middleweight title and prove that the shocking image of the travelling community created by TV hit My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding is nonsense.


Beijing Olympian Saunders, a born-and-bred Romany gypsy, has clocked up seven straight wins since turning pro two years ago and faces Turgay Uzun at London’s York Hall on Saturday hoping to underline his rich amateur promise in the paid ranks.

Saunders has recently moved out of his caravan into a bungalow, but it is still on the same site in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, he has called home all his life.

“I’m incredibly proud of my ancestry, of where I came from and where I was born,” he said. “I have Romany blood in me and I have been brought up to respect my elders and to live life as well as I can.

“The image portrayed in My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding is terrible because it paints all the travelling community with the same brush. It’s like saying all the people who live in tough estates in London are criminals. It’s just bull.

“People, often young girls, go on TV and they start to show off. They are egged on to say something as outrageous as they can because the producers love that sort of thing.


It’s like saying all the people who live in tough estates in London are criminals
Billy Joe Saunders


“To be honest, it has given travellers a really bad name and it paints a terrible picture of what life is like. It could not be further from the truth. I grew up with a healthy respect for people and most travellers are exactly the same. I am annoyed that viewers watch things like My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding and believe it is true of all travellers. It isn’t. All the girls are ‘slappers’ and the blokes drive around in £50,000 cars. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Saunders reached the second round in Beijing before losing to Carlos Banteaux Saurez, the world amateur silver medallist – a case, he believes, of just plain bad luck.

“I beat the fighter I lost to six weeks before the Olympics, but on the day I wasn’t good enough, simple as that. Since turning pro, I have knocked over seven opponents and the kid I have got on Saturday is another decent boxer.




“Since I first walked into a gym at the age of five, boxing is all I have wanted to do. Nothing else interested me.

“I’m one of the lucky ones because I love what I do and I’m under a trainer, Jimmy Tibbs, who has been there, seen it and done it. He is a brilliant coach, the best.

“He never accepts anything less than 100 per cent effort which is exactly what I need. I like being pushed by Jimmy because he knows, and I know, that I can go all the way.” Saunders, 21, certainly has boxing in his blood as his great-grandfather is Absolom Beeney, the most famous Romany bare-knuckle champion in history, and his father Tom was also a decent amateur.

“My great-grandad is 99 years of age now, but he would still fancy his chances against me,” he said. “He first fought in the old boxing booths at circuses at the age of 13. What an incredible life he has had. He loves his boxing and he is convinced I am going to make it. So am I.

“I have only fought twice in the past year because I broke my knuckle and the operation I had on it wasn’t successful, but I am back now.”

Next Friday sees the ‘rematch’ between ‘Marvellous’ Marvin Hagler and Leicester’s legendary former European champion Tony Sibson.

The pair have not met since trading blows for the world middleweight title in 1983, a clash which Hagler won inside six rounds.

Hagler is the main speaker at a sporting dinner at Villa Park, where he will meet Sibson for the first time since their showdown 28 years ago and discuss his remarkable career. Hagler said: “I am delighted to be returning to the Midlands for the first time in seven years and I cannot wait to meet Tony Sibson again. It is going to be a great occasion. ”

Also in attendance will be former world champion Richie Woodhall, Wayne Elcock, Rendall Munroe and Micky Cantwell.

Property Of http://www.express.co.uk/

Wednesday, 4 May 2011

Saunders settles down to spar for Gypsy kith and kin

Billy Joe Saunders believes he was robbed by the judges in the Olympics, but now he is ready for his professional debut
        Billy Joe Saunders

Billy Joe Saunders training at his East London gym before his debut professional fight. Photograph: Tom Jenkins
 
A dark patch of sweat spreads across the back of Billy Joe Saunders's grey T-shirt in a derelict warehouse in Canning Town. Tucked away in a corner of a bleak industrial estate, with the flatlands of east London stretched out around us, the new boxing home for the teenage Romany Gypsy fighter is still a strange and draining place. Unlike the arcane world of amateur boxing, which increasingly resembles fencing more than fighting, with bouts being decided by ­scoring as political as it is arbitrary, the professional gym deals in raw hurt.

Between the ropes, and stalked by a determined African journeyman, ­Saunders's breathing falls hard and fast as he prepares for his professional debut in Birmingham on Saturday night. Alongside his fellow amateur stars, James DeGale and Frankie Gavin, Saunders will fight on a Frank Warren bill which should mark the start of an intriguing era for British boxing. DeGale will flash his Olympic gold medal and Gavin can point to the amateur world title he won, but Saunders brings the most ­evocative story to the ring.

As the 19-year-old endures a punishing training regime his father, Tom, talks softly about their Romany Gypsy heritage. In his understated way, he describes the persecution of the Roma under the Nazis and explains how draconian legislation shackles their misunderstood tradition in Britain today. Beyond the harsh sounds of sparring, Tom's hope, that his youngest son may help change ­perceptions of their community, resounds.

"I'd like to do that," the fighter himself says an hour later as he strips off his ­sodden shirt and protective headgear. "When most people hear we're Travellers they think: 'Gypsy! Trouble!' It ain't nice. Don't get me wrong, there are bad people among Travellers, but you can't tar everyone with the same brush. Look at my dad, or my great-grandad. They're proud and decent and if I can help people understand that I'll be doing a good job."

Absolom Beeny, Saunders's great-grandfather, used to make a living through ­bare-knuckle fighting at fairgrounds the Romany Gypsies set up at sites around England more than 70 years ago. "He was a champion, my old great-grandad," Saunders says, grinning, "and you can still see that today. We never had birth certificates in them days so no one's sure of his exact age. He says he's 96 but he might be a year or two older. He still goes drinking in different pubs around Hertfordshire and they all know him."

Saunders winks as he draws a link with old Absolom's recipe for a long life. "I haven't had a fight since the Beijing ­Olympics – except for down the pub," he quips. "My last fight was on 14 August, when I lost to the Cuban [Carlos Banteaux Suarez]. That's why I'm still shaking off the ring rust."

Some boxing experts believe that, starting his career at light-middleweight against Hungary's Attila Molnar , Saunders will eventually emerge as the most successful of the trio Warren has plucked from the British Olympic team. With his sharp punching and slick ringcraft, ­Saunders had already proved himself by the time he arrived in Beijing. He had won his first 49 bouts and also outpointed ­Suarez six months earlier.

"I had the beating of him in Beijing," Saunders insists. "But it's not good when you land 10 shots and you go back to your corner and see that none of them have counted and you're four points down. But best of luck to the Cuban. He won the silver." Saunders remains convinced that he would have won gold at the London 2012 Olympics – had his amateur career not been derailed by controversy soon after losing to Suarez. An unnamed source fed the Daily Mail a story that Saunders could be seen on a YouTube clip acting in an "obscene and lewd" manner towards a Frenchwoman.

"Believe it or not," Saunders snorts, "this meant the ABA [Amateur Boxing Association] pushed a future Olympic champion, me, out of 2012. Even if people say you can't be sure, I would have been a banker for gold. They really fucked themselves because I was thinking hard about staying for London, getting my glory, and only then turning pro. But they shafted me so they could get Terry Edwards."

As the plain-speaking coach of the British team, Edwards had many foes in the ABA. "They wanted Terry out," Saunders says. "They were jealous of him. So they blew up this YouTube thing to get at him. Terry went mad when he learnt the truth and saw there was no scandal. But at first he was mad with me. You could have sworn blind I'd murdered someone. I didn't know what he was talking about. It took me ages to work out he was talking about this joke we'd had in France months before."

The mysterious YouTube clip has been seen by very few people, and it has since been removed, which means that Saunders has to protest his innocence. "Nothing bad happened. This French lady was cleaning our hotel room and we were joking together. She was ­having a laugh with us, her and a few of her colleagues."

What were they laughing about? "I was just learning her English," Saunders says.It does not take much imagination to guess the kind of crude English words an excitable young boxer might claim to be teaching an older Frenchwoman, but Saunders suggests: "She was a lovely lady with a sense of humour. She would laugh this thing off if anyone asked her, I promise you. But someone twisted it and I got suspended for lewd behaviour. I couldn't believe it, but it was a blessing in disguise. It made me turn pro."

Saunders argues that he will bring a new responsibility to his professional work. "It's not about me no more. It's about my little boy's future."

Billy Joe Jr is 19 months old and his father reveals, bashfully, that another baby is due in May. "I call it my Beijing baby because it happened as soon as I got home from the Olympics. The little 'un is going to have a brother."

His former girlfriend, Ruby, is the mother of both, but Saunders, hinting at the chaos of a teenager's love-life, shifts awkwardly and mumbles, "Well, yeah, but I'm single now. It's a long old story but she's a lovely girl and very understanding. The important thing is I've got a ­little boy, and another on the way, and I don't want them on the streets in later life. I don't want them getting stabbed or any of that shit. I want them to lead a
good and decent life."

Saunders laughs grimly when asked what might have happened to him had he not been such a gifted boxer. "I would probably have ended up in prison. I've had mates stabbed and shot and ending up on a life-support machine. I've had two close friends in prison – one for eight years and one for five – and both tell me to keep my head down and not make the same mistakes as them."

His elder brother, Tom, has also passed down lessons forged through ­bitter experience and tragedy. "Tom is a very talented boxer and he was on the same British team as Amir Khan. He was all set to go to the 2004 Olympics but he lost his way a little and got fed up with boxing. But something worse happened. Tom lost his baby boy when it was born [2007]. That knocked him badly. My own baby was due just a few weeks later. I was really worried but thankfully it was OK. And Tom now has a beautiful little daughter. So he's recovering and he's fighting again as a pro in April. But it made me understand ­nothing is certain."
There had been another poignant moment earlier that afternoon when Saunders' father had suggested that, for Romany Gypsies, "living in a home without wheels is the same as birds being kept in a cage". Yet, for Saunders, his new parental responsibilities mean he will "work hard, get some serious money and hopefully move into property".

He nods when reminded of his father's birdcage analogy. "I know. But we ain't allowed to travel these days. I've been at the same [Travellers'] site in Hatfield 13 years now. So he understands why I want to invest in property. All my advisers are telling me to do it, and they're smart blokes."

So could he become the first Romany Gypsy turned property developer – especially now that he has ordered himself a new Mercedes as a reward for turning professional? "I hope so," he laughs. "I remember Mike Tyson and the hundreds of millions he lost. Where did his money go? You have to be sensible and hold on to it. But that don't mean I'm giving up my Romany roots. They made me and my whole family. From the little 'un, my baby boy, to my dad and all the way back to my old great-grandad, I just want to make them proud of me."

Property of http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/feb/24/billy-joe-saunders-boxing