By: Hans Themistode
According to Billy Joe Saunders, Canelo Alvarez has fooled everyone.
His pound for pound standing, world championship status and future Hall of Fame stature has all been built on a fraudulent resume.
“He’s boxed all of the greats and beaten all of the greats, at the end of their careers,” said Saunders to Mike Coppinger. “His team is very good at picking people at the end of their careers. They’re very, very good at picking people just on the downward spiral.”
At the age of 31, Saunders is presumably smack-dab in the middle of his prime. The British native has picked up world titles in multiple weight classes and has always been lauded for his skillset. However, he has also been highly criticized for his lack of effort in several of his contests.
By all accounts, Saunders lackluster showings, including his most recent win against Martin Murray in early December, have made him a prime candidate to take on Alvarez. After spending years calling for a showdown between the pair, Saunders has finally gotten his wish as they are slated to face one another in early May.
While Saunders would love to believe that he was chosen due to his highly thought of skills and WBO title, he’s more so under the impression that he was given the opportunity due to team Alvarez believing he’s a shot fighter. Regardless of their reasoning, Saunders is ready to prove that their thought process was completely erroneous.
“Maybe I look like that to them. Maybe they’ve seen my fights against (Martin) Murray, and, I don’t know the one before but no, no, no my friend. That’s because I haven’t got the fire in my belly to get up for them because I can beat them with two or three weeks notice training.”
Saunders lack of motivation and subsequent half-ass training camps showed in many of his fights. This time around however, the 31-year-old plans on pushing himself to the absolute limit.
The money and fame that comes along with a win over the consensus best fighter in the world in Canelo Alvarez is enough to motivate anyone. In Saunders case though, he could care less about the truckloads of money currently being sent to his house. The amount of torture he is willing to endure to secure the victory come May will prove to many what he has been saying all along, that he’s one of the best fighters in the world.
“My life for the next three months is absolutely hell. I’m putting myself through hell and back and I’m prepared to live in hell every single day to win. Forget about the money. I want to win, I need to win and it’s a must thing for me to win.”