By: Hans Themistode
When it was first announced that Canelo Alvarez would be taking on Billy Joe Saunders on May 2nd, for Saunders WBO Super Middleweight title, the news was met with ambivalence.
Sure Saunders has always flashed greatness in the ring. But he’s also shown to have the capability to completely stink up the joint.
After back to back impressive wins over Willie Monroe Jr and. David Lemieux, Saunders had never seen his stock look any higher. But in a pattern that has defined his career, Saunders followed up those huge wins with lackluster performances against Shefat Isufi and Marcelo Esteban. Saunders managed to pull out the win in both contests, but he hardly looked impressive.
Regardless of his recent performances however, Saunders has now found himself in the biggest fight of his career.
Maybe.
With Saunders making the poor choice of releasing a video depicting how to physically abuse your wife, his boxing license has been immediately taken away. He isn’t completely out of the running to land a fight with Canelo as a meeting to discuss his future has been set, but there is one fighter who would rather them not face off at all.
“It would be a more exciting fight with me [against Canelo] rather than Saunders or Smith,” said Eubank Jr.”
“The entire world knows that Saunders would run for 12 rounds in a boring fight. Then would be caught and knocked out. That is not a fight I’m interested in seeing. I don’t get the interest. Saunders has a belt which is the only reason he has this opportunity but, who knows, maybe that belt won’t be with him for much longer if he’s banned after what he’s done.”
Eubank Jr has been called a lot of things. Not very skilled, a front runner and even a non contender but never a boring fighter. But a fight between himself and Canelo seems far from likely. Another fighter who also found himself on the short list of opponents for Canelo’s next ring appearance was WBA Super Middleweight champion Callum Smith.
While many believe that the tall, lanky but also hard hitting Smith would cause Canelo a ton of trouble, Eubank Jr see’s that matchup playing out in yet another easy victory for Canelo.
“Smith’s performance against John Ryder? We saw a lot of weaknesses in his game. Canelo is a far superior version of Ryder in terms of his style – come-forward, inside-fighting. Smith couldn’t deal with that against Ryder so what are they thinking? He barely got past Ryder. I think Ryder won that fight.”