Bradley Saunders announces retirement from boxing

After an illustrious yet injury-hindered three decades in boxing, former
Olympian Bradley Saunders
has officially announced his retirement from the sport.
The former long-standing Team GB boxer bows out of with an abundance of
amateur honors and a
professional title sitting proudly in his packed trophy cabinet.
The 32-year- old from Sedgefield endured a long period plagued by hand and
eye injuries that saw him
undergo corrective surgery on multiple occasions, but ultimately resulting
in his difficult decision to
step away.
“I’ve had five eye operations now and I’m going back into the hospital for
the final one,” the Beijing
2008 Olympian, recently based in Spain at MTK Marbella, explained. “People
think I’m retiring
because of my hands, but it was my eyes, they are only just settling down
now and looking normal
again.
“My last operation in Spain didn’t go right and I’ve been advised to sue
them for the complications,
like the double vision I’ve had, been seeing two of everything! Doctors
said I shouldn’t even be
allowed to drive a car, let alone get in the ring and fight for a living.
“It happened just before I won the WBO Inter-Continental title back in June
2014. I was sparring
Steve O’Meara and one of the muscles in my eyes just collapsed because I
was dehydrated and
exhausted. I was seeing double all the way through that fight, but luckily
I got rid of him early.”
Saunders blasted away EU super-lightweight champion Ville Piispanen (18-5-
3) in just 81 seconds
that night at the Metro Arena in Newcastle to collect the vacant belt, in
what would be his last fight
signed to Hall of Fame promoter Frank Warren.
The heavy-handed Saunders raced to 12 fights unbeaten with nine knockouts
in the first three years of
his career, during 2012-2015, despite being hampered by recurring injuries.
Specialist hand surgeon Mike Hayton was called upon to operate on the
injured fighter’s fists on three
occasions. One of these surgeries prompted a six-month layoff before
Saunders’ returned to the ring
against underrated Frenchman Renold Garrido (15-11- 1) in his third
appearance under the Matchroom
banner. Unfortunately for Saunders, his 13 th professional contest saw him
fall to his first professional
defeat and first loss overall in seven years.
It was in September 2015 at the Liverpool Olympia that Garrido managed to
derail the County
Durham star’s career by swarming his debilitated opponent until he was
disqualified in the sixth round
for an intentional headbutt.
“Left hand went in the second round, right hand went in the fourth,” he
remarked casually. “I didn’t
want to turn my back or take a knee, so that [headbutt] was my way of
keeping him off in the heat of
the moment.”
Saunders had ruptured ligaments and damaged previous bone grafts in both
hands and went back
under the knife in a third attempt to fix the periodic problems.
“My hands were in splints, it was awful, I couldn’t I can’t even pull my
boxer shorts up on my own!”
he laughed. “They went in my first ever pro fight with Jason Nesbitt and
I’ve had endless trouble and
operations on both hands ever since.”

Saunders originally debuted at the York Hall in London in February 2012
after a stellar amateur
career and was last seen in the ring in June 2017 making short work of
Northern Irishman Casey
Blair, stopping him in the first round in Newcastle.
Peter Sims was the man responsible for whipping Bradley into shape for what
turned out to be his last
professional contest.
He added, “As a pro, I don’t think he got a fair crack of the whip and too
much was expected too
early. It might have been different if he had kept active after the last
win, but the eye op postponed all
that.
“All the work on his hands during his career left big gaps and it’s a real
shame because he worked
hard in the gym, it was common knowledge that he was a devastating puncher
and a talented amateur
– what a great career he had!”
Initially inspired by his dad, Jeff, an amateur boxer with his own gym,
Bradley started boxing aged
eight at Sedgefield ABC, having his first fight at 10. As an amateur,
Saunders achieved incredible
heights and was a member of the Team GB squad for over 10 years.
“I started off down in Crystal Palace and fought for England against Russia
when I was only 11. I beat
the Russian and it all kicked off from there, I went from England
schoolboys to Cadets to Junior
England to the senior team and all the way through. In total, I had around
252 amateur fights and only
lost 17 of those.”
Saunders won the senior ABA title in 2006 (adding to four schoolboys and a
Junior national title), a
World bronze medal in 2007 and a Commonwealth silver in 2010. He was part
of the Beijing 2008
Olympic squad with heavyweight hero David Price, two-weight world champion
Amir Khan and
WBO middleweight king Billy Joe Saunders.
During his Team GB days, he fought all over the world against the very best
in the amateur code,
beating three Olympic champions in Manus Boonjumnong, Aleksei Tishchenko
and Matchroom’s
latest signing Daniyar Yeleussinov.
Facing a future without boxing, Saunders has since set up a business to
provide for his wife Stephanie
and 11-year- old son Leyton.
“My two companies – SLS Road Maintenance and SSK Recruitment – keep me well
above water, I’m
making more money than I ever did in boxing,” he enthused. “I feel a lot
better providing for myself
and my family and I’ve got a lot of people working for me now, so I’m
responsible for them as well.”
On hanging up his gloves, Saunders gave thanks to all that helped him
during his career and lifted the
lid on making the difficult decision.
“I have been having a hard time coming to terms with knowing that I will
have to retire, going out all
the time and drinking a lot, but I am a lot better within myself now.
“I’d like to thank everyone I’ve been involved with during my entire boxing
career from coaches to
promoters to the fans, it’s been such a big part of my life.
“I’m still going to be involved in the sport, I was only sparring my
brother Jeff [a 12-0 super-
lightweight] the other day. I’m going to concentrate on his career and help
as much as I can. I think he
can go all the way.
“When my life slows down a bit, I would like to train people and keep my
hand in the sport, say in
five years time, either in amateur or professional.”

Bradley Saunders hangs up his gloves with a professional record of 13 wins,
a single loss and one
professional title, but will mostly be remembered for an astounding amateur
career likely to be
unrivaled for many years to come.