Britain’s Billy Joe Saunders (24-0, 12 KOs) retained his WBO middleweight title with a points win over Artur Akavov (16-2, 7 KOs) on Saturday night at the Paisley Lagoon Centre in Glasgow, Scotland.
In his first title defence, Saunders won a unanimous decision by scores of 116-113, 116-112 and 115-113, but he was outworked for most of the fight and fortunate to keep the WBO belt.
Saunders has not been in action since winning the world title with a majority decision over Andy Lee last December,…