Billy Joe Saunders relishing world title shot in Manchester

Lee, 31, admits not having home advantage against his English challenger is a blow and describes it as a 50-50 encounter.

Hatfield’s Billy Joe Saunders is looking forward to attempting to wrench the WBO World Middleweight title away from champion Andy Lee on home soil in Manchester on Saturday, October 10.

“Great news off my manager @DJK256, I won’t be on Manchester show, I’ll be out end of October in a massive fight”.

“I’ve been laughing with my brothers about it. Paul and Stephen both won the British title before me but I’m going to be the first world champion in the family”.

It was very disappointing because a fight in Limerick would have been a dream come true but it wasn’t to be. “This is England”.

The respect between the pair was evident at a press conference to announce the rearranged bout in Manchester on Monday, and Saunders said he bore no grudges over the delay.

However, Lee knows he’ll need to be at full fitness in order to see off the challenge of Saunders, particularly with the fight now set to take place in England.

“It was a close fight anyway and now it’s even closer than it was before”.

Lee versus Saunders will headline a card which will feature two other world title bouts: WBO lightweight world champion Terry Flanagan versus Diego Magdaleno, and Liam Smith versus Michael Soro for the vacant WBO light-middleweight world title.

“We made an offer to Anthony Crolla and offered him a lot of money to fight him, but he turned it down and he’s going for the rematch [against Perez]”, Warren said.

“There’s always pride on the line when you’re fighting, I guess, but this one especially with our backgrounds”. I don’t expect any favours in the ring on the night.