Saunders labours in first WBO defence.

Unbeaten WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs) won an laboured twelve round unanimous decision over WBO #10 rated Artur Akavov (16-2, 7 KOs) on Saturday night at the Paisley Lagoon Centre in Glasgow, Scotland.
In what was his first title defense, Saunders struggled to get a foothold, allowing the inspired Akavov to give as good as he got for the first half of the fight. Saunders eventually caught his groove in the last 5 rounds, yet allowed Akavov to closed the fight strongly.
Scores were 116-113, 116-112, 115-113.
After the fight, Saunders addressed the crowd, admitted it was a poor performance, apologising for the sub par show..  “Tonight was really, really flat, on that performance my name shouldn’t be mentioned with Golovkin and Canelo!”
I had the fight much closer than the judges, and many at ringside felt that Akavov could have left the ring as champion..