It was a battle of the southpaws as the student of Emmanuel Steward faced his third undefeated opponent in a row and began the fight with his hands low as Saunders wisely kept his by his temples.
In Round 3 it was Saunders that displayed his power, dropping Lee heavily in the center of the ring. Lee beat the count and was swiftly reintroduced to the canvas several seconds later.
Lee rebounded and likely won the following round but Saunders remained at the helm through the mid rounds.
The spectre of a sense detaching, fight-changing hook from Lee continued to hang in the air like the fog from dry ice.
The remainder of the fight was an even affair and Saunders notched the victory by scores of 113-113, 114-112, 115-111.
With the win, Saunders became the 12th current British world champion.
“I’m world champion,” Saunders said. “I beat a good champion today, a good sturdy champion. I used his power against him. When I was boxing he got a little bit careless and dropped his lead hand and I caught him with the hook.”
“I’m not going to start running my mouth, but it was a good shot. With someone as fast as me you have to keep your hands up. I’m not the biggest puncher in the world, but I showed you there that I can punch,”said Saunders.
WBA Middleweight World Champion Daniel Jacobs, fresh off a first round knockout of Peter Quillin two weeks ago on Showtime, was a guest analyst on Saturday from New York.
“I thought he was going to be a big brawler, I thought he had better assets,” Jacobs said of Lee. “He didn’t do enough for me. He was too complacent and after the knockdown you didn’t see that sense of urgency that a fighter has to have on the comeback trail.”
