By: Sean Crose
In a video interview with Behind The Gloves’ Michelle Joy Phelps, Canelo Alvarez’ trainer Eddie Reynoso spoke of yesterday’s actions by Billy Joe Saunders’ team. Saunder’s father had gone so far as to say Saturday’s super middleweight title bout between Canelo and Saunders would be cancelled because of a disagreement on the size of the ring. “It’s disrespectful to us,” Reynoso says in the video. “It’s disrespectful to the fans.” Fortunately, matters have been resolved so that both fighters can now face off on Saturday night at Texas’ AT&T Stadium. “BJ Saunders has always fought in a ring that’s 20 feet long,” Reynoso says. Still, in order to make the fight happen, team Canelo seems to have been willing to oblige team Saunders’ wishes.
“We’re going to give him what he wants,” Reynoso says of Saunders. “He can’t run out of that ring.” It’s clear in the interview that Reynoso is unimpressed with the antics of Saunders and his camp. That, apparently, is why John Ryder is standing by as a potential backup for WBO super middleweight titlist Saunders. “You don’t know what to expect from Saunders,” Reynoso says. “John Ryder’s right there.” Reynoso is also displeased with the fact that some Canelo backers started heckling at yesterday’s press event – an event that Saunders himself refused to participate in.
“We had to respond,” Reynoso said of Canelo snapping back at his antagonists. “This is the fourth fifth time, that we fight here so we’re not going to let him disrespect us here in our home, in our back yard.” As for Saunders himself, the man actually appears to be rather low key about the entire affair. “I don’t know what went on,” he says in a video to Andrew McCart of iFL Tv. “Just a bout of rubbish really, isn’t it?” Still, the undefeated Englishman went on to state his case.
“If they would have told me it’s this (size) ring,” he said, “I’d have trained in a small ring.” To be sure, Saunders will probably want to be as mobile as possible on Saturday when he faces the hard hitting (particularly to the body) Canelo. A slick southpaw, Saunders is seen by some as being capable of giving Canelo real trouble in the ring. For his own part, Canelo hasn’t lost a match since he dropped a decision to the great Floyd Mayweather way back in 2013 – when Canelo was only 23 years old.