Canelo Álvarez vs. Billy Joe Saunders, billed as Face the Fearless, was a super middleweight professional boxing match contested between WBA (Super), WBC, and The Ring champion, Canelo Álvarez, and WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders.
Canelo Álvarez
The bout took place on May 8, 2021, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. With an official attendance of 73,126, it was reported to have surpassed Leon Spinks vs.
Canelo Álvarez (55-1-2, 37 KOs) held the WBC and WBA world titles at 168 pounds. Billy Joe Saunders (30-0, 14 KOs) owned the WBO belt. However, the hardware is largely immaterial whenever Canelo steps in the ring as he is widely considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
In Saunders he met a slick southpaw bidding to become the second member of the Traveling community to hold multiple title belts simultaneously, joining his friend Tyson Fury.
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The fight between the pair was previously planned for May 2, 2020, in Las Vegas, before the COVID-19 pandemic brought the sport to a halt. Álvarez planned to stage his next fight on September 12, again in Las Vegas, with Billy Joe Saunders, Callum Smith and a Gennady Golovkin trilogy all being possible.
However, Álvarez refused to take a pay cut off his deal with streaming service DAZN and Golden Boy Promotions. Unable to agree on an opponent and with DAZN unwilling to pay, Álvarez sued DAZN, as well as Golden Boy Promotion's founder Oscar De La Hoya for breach of contract and sought at least $280 million, the remainder of what he was owed on his deal. According to the lawsuit, De La Hoya would be liable for the money.
Fight Details and Outcome
Canelo vs. Saunders was agreed before Álvarez's fight with Yıldırım, and was officially announced shortly after.
The fight was close and competitive for the first seven rounds, with most giving the early rounds to Canelo and the middle rounds to Saunders. A right uppercut from Álvarez in round eight reportedly caused a right orbital bone fracture, leaving Saunders unwilling to come out of his corner for the ninth round. As a result Saunders was taken to a hospital post-fight.
According to CompuBox, Álvarez outlanded Saunders during the fight, landing 73 of 206 punches (35.4%), with Saunders landing 60 of 284 (21.1%).
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| Fighter | Punches Landed | Punches Thrown | Landing Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canelo Álvarez | 73 | 206 | 35.4% |
| Billy Joe Saunders | 60 | 284 | 21.1% |
At the post-fight interview, Álvarez made it clear he wanted to become undisputed in the super-middleweight division, calling out IBF titleholder Caleb Plant.
During the post-fight press conference, WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade, asked about a potential bout, with Álvarez dismissing the idea.
Pre-Fight Analysis and Predictions
More than 60,000 fight fans are expected to gather at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, on Saturday. The turnout for the fight between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Billy Joe Saunders represents a turning point in the COVID-19 era.
Boxing has been pretty much walled-off to the general public since a sellout crowd of 15,816 witnessed the second encounter between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder on Feb.
Whenever a fight of this magnitude comes down the pike, we invite members of our editorial staff to provide a quick analysis of the match and forecast the outcome.
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No gimme for Canelo here, as Saunders is a southpaw who can box, has a bit of pop in his punch, as well as a knack for making his opponents look not quite as impressive as they normally are. Still, Canelo is at the top of the boxing food chain for a reason. It's all right for him to win some fights and not be spectacular in doing so.
Figure the Mexican icon on scoring a knockdown or two along the way, but he may have to be satisfied with a win on points this time out. I no longer pick against Canelo Alvarez. And certainly not against a boxing basket case like Billy Joe Saunders.
There’s a huge difference in the level of maturity between these two fighters and that will be seen in the ring when Canelo becomes the first to corner the fleet-footed Saunders and put him on his back. Canelo KO in 10. Canelo by decision. He does everything better than Saunders, who will fight well enough to survive but not win.
Billy Joe is formidable. You don’t lock in an Olympic berth at age 18 without natural talent. You don’t run circles around a big puncher like David Lemieux without a high ring IQ. But Saunders, despite his undefeated record, has been inconsistent. Canelo, as Kevin Iole noted in a recent column, doesn’t do one thing great, but he does everything well. How does one formulate a smart game plan for a boxer with no flaws to exploit?
Much has been made by Saunders' camp this week about the size of the ring that will be used in the fight. While it seems strange and even unruly that there can be such vast disparities in how large the boxing ring is or how spongy the mat can be for any professional fight card in our sport, the truth of the matter is that Saunders probably doesn't have much hope in beating Alvarez no matter how those other factors play out.
They could fight on a basketball court, and I'd still pick Alvarez. The best the cagey UK fighter will be able to muster is trying to go the distance with the Mexican. Callum Smith pulled it off back in December, but Saunders won't quite get there. CANELO via 9th-round stoppage.
There was a time, not that long ago, when I would have favoured Saunders to beat Canelo and stylistically I still feel Saunders holds all the aces. Canelo’s improvements in the last 30 months have astonished, though. He has found a meaningful fourth and fifth punch for his combinations and his strength, for whatever reason, is prestigious at whatever weight he fights.
Saunders, something of a persona-non-grata here in his home country after a series of public relations disasters, is very much a man out of time. Canelo, bodyshots, between the eighth and the tenth. There is a case to be made that Canelo Alvarez has not faced a pure boxer on the level of Billy Joe Saunders since his do-si-do with Erislandy Lara in 2014, in a fight that still has some screaming robbery (Alvarez won by split decision).
Of course, that was nearly seven years ago, back when Alvarez was still trading on his telenovela bonafides. Since then, he has gone on to distinguish himself as arguably the best boxer in the sport today. The same cannot be said for the erratic and self-sabotaging Saunders, who has squandered his impressive showing against David Lemieux in 2017 with consecutive lackluster outings against mostly middling opposition.
The southpaw will find ways to frustrate Alvarez at times, to be sure, but expect Alvarez to slow down the jittery motions of the Brit by punishing him to the body en route to a mostly clear win on the cards. Canelo by majority decision. I see a feeling-out type fight in the first two rounds and then Canelo begins the stalk.
Saunders will be more elusive and more savvy than most of Canelo’s opponents, occasionally getting in some sharp counters. However, he will begin to tire late from an accumulation of Canelo’s body work and from backing up. This will allow the Mexican to increase the tempo looking for a way to close the show. The Traveler will survive. But Canelo will win with a dominating UD.
Two names come to mind for me when deciding how this fight will play out. First, Erislandy Lara, who I saw outbox but not outfight Alvarez. Second is Alexander Povetkin, whose horrible performance against Dillian Whyte was reportedly due to coronavirus residue, which Alvarez also claims to have been afflicted by.
Can Saunders, another left-hander with a bit more of a reach advantage than Lara, take advantage of a possibly weakened Canelo? Don't bet on it unless Cinco de Mayo weekend gets cancelled and nobody from Texas or Mexico shows up for the fight. Saunders seems capable of making it interesting, but Alvarez wins by wide decision or late TKO.