WBO super middlweight champion will earn $8m when he takes on the great Mexican champion in Las Vegas
Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez has agreed terms to fight super middleweight world Billy Joe Saunders on May 2 at the T-Mobile in Las Vegas, with the Hertfordshire fighter from the traveller community gaining the sport’s golden ticket ahead of another British fighter Callum Smith, who was also in the running to face the Mexican boxing superstar.
Unbeaten Saunders, the World Boxing Organisation super middleweight champion with a record of 29-0 and 14 KOs, faces the challenge of his career against four-weight world champion Alvarez, who has a record of 53 fights, one defeat, two draws and thirty-six knockouts from a career which began in 2005 ago as a 15-year-old. The only defeat suffered by Canelo, the youngest of six boxing brothers, was to Floyd Mayweather jnr in 2013.
Trainer Eddy Reynoso confirmed Saunders as the next opponent for the Mexican, but they have now agreed terms. Saunders, seen as a huge underdog in the fight, is expected to earn an estimated $8 million (£6.1m) to face Alvarez with a rematch clause guaranteed if the Briton should win.
Saunders will be trained for the fight by Ben Davison, who oversaw the return of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury from the wilderness, although the pair split before Fury fought Deontay Wilder on Feb 22 in Las Vegas. Davison has previously told Telegraph Sport that they have a plan to outbox the Mexican.
Saunders will be the sixth British boxer that Canelo has fought in his career after Matthew Hatton, Ryan Rhodes, Amir Khan, Liam Smith and Rocky Fielding. Saunders, a 30-year old southpaw, has a second chance of making an impression with American viewers after a laboured performance on his US debut last November over Argentina’s Marcelo Coceres in Los Angeles, although the British fighter did win the fight by late stoppage.
Victory for Saunders over Canelo would be regarded as one of the greatest wins by a British fighter abroad.