Billy Joe Saunders was born on 30 August 1989 and is a British professional boxer.
56 Facts About Billy Joe Saunders
2.
Billy Joe Saunders is the first fighter from the Travelling community to win world championships in two weight classes, including the WBO middleweight title from 2015 to 2018 and the WBO super-middleweight title from 2019 to 2021.
3.
On 19 December 2015, Billy Joe Saunders made history by competing in the first world title fight contested between two members of the travelling community with his opponent Andy Lee; Billy Joe Saunders won the bout by majority decision to become WBO middleweight champion.
4.
Originally from Cheshunt, Billy Joe Saunders grew up in a Romanichal travelling community near Hatfield, Hertfordshire.
5.
Billy Joe Saunders fought for Cheshunt Amateur Boxing club and at Hoddesdon Amateur Boxing Club.
6.
Billy Joe Saunders won his first 49 amateur fights at senior level, including the 2007 Commonwealth Championships and the 2008 Strandzha Cup, edging out Cuban Carlos Banteux.
7.
Billy Joe Saunders was suspended for "lewd behaviour", allegedly pertaining to an incident with a local woman during a pre-season training camp in France.
8.
Billy Joe Saunders made his professional debut on 28 February 2009 at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, against Attila Molnar.
9.
Billy Joe Saunders looked confident from the opening bell, landing hard combinations which quickly overwhelmed Molnar.
10.
Billy Joe Saunders won his second fight by second-round stoppage of Ronny Gabel and his third fight, by second round stoppage, of Matt Scriven.
11.
Billy Joe Saunders went on to score wins against Norbert Szekeres, Gary Boulden and Tony Hill, the last of these giving him his seventh professional knockout victory and his first major regional title, the Commonwealth middleweight championship, on 28 April 2012.
12.
Immediately after the Blandamura fight, Billy Joe Saunders called out another undefeated British prospect and archrival Chris Eubank Jr.
13.
All three of Billy Joe Saunders' titles were on the line, as well as being an eliminator for the WBO world middleweight title.
14.
At around the same time, due to his high ranking, Billy Joe Saunders received an offer from the IBF to fight for their vacant world middleweight title, but he reiterated his intention to follow the WBO route.
15.
Billy Joe Saunders then continued to outbox Lee using head movement and an accurate jab until the later rounds.
16.
However, Billy Joe Saunders was forced to pull out due to a hand injury sustained in training.
17.
In rounds 5,6,7 and 8, Billy Joe Saunders bounced back and hit combos landing power shots in the process.
18.
Billy Joe Saunders won on all scorecards claiming a unanimous decision to retain his WBO title.
19.
On 20 December, it was announced that Billy Joe Saunders had parted with long time trainer Jimmy Tibbs, who he had been mentored by since turning professional in 2008.
20.
On 18 January 2017, Billy Joe Saunders announced he would be working with Adam Booth.
21.
In early February 2017, mandatory challenger Avtandil Khurtsidze took a 'step-a-side' fee to allow Billy Joe Saunders to pursue a bigger fight.
22.
Billy Joe Saunders tweeted on social media that although he did not watch Golovkin's fight with Daniel Jacobs, he was ready to fight him.
23.
Billy Joe Saunders claimed to have signed the contract on his end and gave Golovkin a deadline to sign his.
24.
Billy Joe Saunders later claimed to have moved on from Golovkin, until Warren said the deal was still in place.
25.
The plan was to have Billy Joe Saunders fight around the same week as Golovkin vs Alvarez, and then fight the winner.
26.
Billy Joe Saunders claimed that the reason for the split with Booth was due to being 'too close to home' and ongoing distractions.
27.
Billy Joe Saunders controlled the fight throughout, suffering a cut over his right eye during a clash of heads in round 4.
28.
Billy Joe Saunders stated that HBO were interested showcasing the fight.
29.
Billy Joe Saunders won the bout, retaining his WBO title for the third time.
30.
Billy Joe Saunders earned a minimum $1 million purse while Lemieux took home a $500,000 guaranteed purse.
31.
On 17 January 2018, Warren announced that Billy Joe Saunders would make a fourth defence of his WBO title at The O2 Arena in London, on the same card Terry Flanagan fights Maurice Hooker for the vacant WBO junior-lightweight title on 14 April.
32.
On 20 March, Billy Joe Saunders suffered a hand injury in training forcing the card to be cancelled, however the fight was quickly rescheduled for 23 June 2018 at the same arena.
33.
On 20 June, it was reported that Billy Joe Saunders would fight in September 2018.
34.
On 11 October 2018, it was announced that Billy Joe Saunders had vacated the WBO middleweight title in anticipation of being stripped.
35.
Billy Joe Saunders weighed 178.5 pounds and Adamu came in at 173.2 pounds.
36.
Billy Joe Saunders won the fight after Adamu failed to come out from his corner after round four.
37.
Billy Joe Saunders's opponent was scheduled to be German based Albanian Shefat Isufi.
38.
Billy Joe Saunders advised if he is victorious, he would likely challenge Ramirez for the full title in late 2019, however if Ramirez opted to remain at light-heavyweight, the winner of Billy Joe Saunders vs Isufi would become full champion.
39.
Billy Joe Saunders came in at the 168-pound limit and Isufi came in slightly lighter at 167.4 pounds.
40.
Billy Joe Saunders won the fight by a landslide unanimous decision, winning the WBO super-middleweight title and becoming a two weight world champion.
41.
In September 2019, it was announced that Billy Joe Saunders would make the first defence of his WBO super-middleweight title on the KSI vs Logan Paul II undercard.
42.
On 9 October 2019, it was confirmed that Billy Joe Saunders would be fighting Marcelo Esteban Coceres on 9 November.
43.
On 4 December 2020, Billy Joe Saunders returned to the ring after more than a year out of the ring to make the second defence of his WBO title against Martin Murray in the SSE Arena, London.
44.
Billy Joe Saunders had boxed well to this point, generally being able to avoid Canelo's bigger shots.
45.
Hearn revealed after the fight that Billy Joe Saunders had suffered multiple fractures to his eye socket and was awaiting surgery.
46.
In September 2018, a then-29-year-old Billy Joe Saunders was caught on camera pretending to be a police officer and forcing a man to strip naked in his car.
47.
The woman punched a man walking past and Billy Joe Saunders then drove away from the scene.
48.
In March 2020, Billy Joe Saunders was alleged to have made a phone call to Delta Airlines claiming that three other boxers on a flight from Las Vegas to New York were infected with COVID-19.
49.
An audio clip of the call circulated on social media in which Billy Joe Saunders was heard laughing about the incident.
50.
On November 28,2021, a video surfaced online via YouTube of a man claiming that Billy Joe Saunders stabbed his 18-year-old son in the hand after a street fight.
51.
The man alleges that Billy Joe Saunders pulled out a gun and pointed it at his other son, but hesitated to fire it.
52.
Billy Joe Saunders released a statement days later via his Instagram account, labelling the accusations as "complete rubbish" while saying that he would "make no public comment at this stage" acting on the advice of his lawyer.
53.
Billy Joe Saunders has received attention for his links to reputed Irish crime boss Daniel Kinahan, who served as Billy Joe Saunders's advisor.
54.
Billy Joe Saunders has publicly criticised the British and Irish media for their coverage of Kinahan, releasing numerous statements in his defence.
55.
Billy Joe Saunders is a father of two sons, both born to his former girlfriend Ruby.
56.
Billy Joe Saunders is a friend of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.