Bout between the Mexican and the Briton will be one of the boxing highlights of 2021
Billy Joe Saunders, the unbeaten British fighter, is to face Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in a super middleweight unification megafight.
When and where is the fight?
The bout is scheduled for May 8, the Cinco de Mayo weekend, at a venue yet to be announced. Miami, Dallas or Las Vegas are the three most likely locations.
What titles are on the line?
The four titles on the line are from the WBC, WBA Super, WBO and Ring Magazine. A win for Alvarez would leave him with IBF champion Caleb Plant to beat in order to hold every world championship at super middleweight. A win for Saunders would be one of the greatest British victories of all time.
How did the fight come about?
Alvarez destroyed the WBC’s mandatory challenger, Avni Yildirim, in three rounds on Saturday 27 February, at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami in front of 12,000 fans.
What is Billy Joe Saunders saying?
Often referred to as the bad boy of British boxing, the Hertfordshire fighter comes from the traveller race and is undefeated as a two-weight world champion in a 30-fight career. He has been fined on several occasions by the British Boxing Board of Control for ill-discipline, and, just hours after the Alvarez fight was confirmed, appeared on Instagram wearing an apron with a fake penis, in a video from his training camp in Spain.
“Canelo, I’m ready to rock and roll,” Saunders said. “You have to dare to be great and you aren’t going to be a great if you don’t beat the greats. I believe I am the only one with the footwork, knowhow, skillset, mindset and brain to unlock that door in Canelo.
“He’s the main man in the sport and the face of boxing. You have to give him respect, he hasn’t ducked anyone, he’s beaten good names, but nobody is unbeatable, and I believe I have got the tools to beat him if I use them properly.
“I am looking at the golden ticket to cement my legacy, and that’s how you have to go in there to beat him. I’ve won everything from Southern Area to world titles. I could say ‘I’ve won it all, been to the Olympics, I’m unbeaten — I’ll see you later’. But I’ve only just turned 31, I’ve got no miles on the clock, haven’t taken any punishment — I believe he’s been in harder fights than me and has more miles, so I want to cement my legacy and beat him.”
What is Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez saying?
The Mexican is ranked the No 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world. He is a world champion in four weight divisions from light-middleweight to light heavyweight. Saunders will be the seventh British fighter to take him on; Alvarez’s victory over Turkey’s Yildirim followed his triumph over Liverpool’s Callum Smith in December.
The youngest of seven brothers who have all fought professionally, Alvarez has gone 57 fights with just one defeat — to Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2013. He has acknowledged that in Saunders, he will face an accomplished and awkward southpaw.
“He’s a very difficult fighter. We need to go for him,” he said. “People talk, but I’m a mature fighter. I know how to control myself. All I need to do is go into the ring, win and make history.
“I want to unify the division. No one has done it in Latin America. In the world only a few fighters have done it — the best. I want to make history and be one of the best in the world.”