According to Eddie Hearn, Billy Joe Saunders busted his eye socket and his trainer refused to let him go back out. And now the 34-year-old has won the Canelo sweepstakes after the Mexican picked off three world champions at 168 pounds in the shape of Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant inside 12 months. The 31-year-old American doesn’t have a targeted date for his next title defense though, but speaking after the fight in Guadalajara, Canelo says his time will come once he deals with his fellow countryman, a few months after his fight with Billy Joe Saunders. “There are risks, but a reasonable amount of risks,” he added speaking with longtime boxing writer Lance Pugmire. There’s a clear reason 37-year-old Zhilei Zhang (22-0-1, 17 KO) has never been taken very seriously as a pro by boxing fans despite being huge, having some skills, and having won a silver medal at the 2008 Olympics. Alvarez, a pro since age 15, beat Saunders by TKO after eight rounds to capture a new bauble to go along with the WBA and WBC titles he already possessed at 168 pounds. The Yildirim fight was a mandatory defence for Canelo after he won the WBA and WBC super-middleweight titles by beating Callum Smith in December.
Rocky from Stocky v Canelo. R6: Big shots from Canelo but they are mostly blocked. Both were getting hit with a lot of big shots. Plant lacked the defensive skill to prevent the Mexican from landing debilitating shots to both body and head, or the power to get Canelo’s respect. Plant then said: “When I said ‘Motherf--‘, I would never talk about your mother because I don’t have a mother. However, just seconds later after seemingly not being satisfied with his man’s response, he decided to end it there and then. The pair put on an incredible battle in a 2019 Fight of the Year contender after Donaire rallied from being dropped to break Inoue's orbital bone late. Saunders covers up to absorb a pair of Canelo right hands against his guard. Canelo answers with an uppercut. Left uppercut hits for Alvarez. That said, WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury was also a part of the storyline in which he backed Saunders to maul Alvarez. R7: Saunders is touching him nicely from different angles.
After a mid-fight adjustment saw the tricky Saunders (30-1, 14 KOs) work his way back into the fight, Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 KOs) finished him off with a right uppercut in Round 8 that swelled and appeared to damage the right eye of Saunders. Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 KOs), 30, of Guadalajara, Mexico, arrived at Jalisco Stadium as a special guest for Julio Cesar Chavez‘s exhibition bout with Hector Camacho Jr on Saturday night. Alvarez, the Mexican superstar who unified Saunders' WBO title with his WBA and WBC belts, celebrated the abrupt TKO in front of an adoring crowd of 73,126 inside AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, as the fight set a new global indoor record for boxing attendance. There's Jermall Charlo, the undefeated, brash-talking middleweight champion who has long pushed for a meeting with Alvarez. Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez admits he is open to the prospect of facing Jermall Charlo in the boxing ring but for now he is focused on unifying the super-middleweight division with Caleb Plant. I want to unify,” Charlo said in his post-fight interview. “I want to get Golovkin in the ring. “I want big fights, Benavidez, Charlo, or whoever.