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Billy Joe Saunders Denies Quitting Against Canelo Alvarez

Published 09/16/2021, 7:00 AM EDT

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USA Today via Reuters

In May 2021, Billy Joe Saunders locked horns with the P4P king, Canelo Alvarez, for a mammoth super-middleweight title unification bout. Moving into this contest, Saunders possessed an undefeated stint, and he was pretty optimistic about getting that ‘W’ to his name.

But beating someone of Canelo’s caliber isn’t easy by any means. And this is exactly what happened in the actual fight. The Mexican boxing stalwart outclassed ‘Superb’ in every department and attained a significant RTD win to advance in the undisputed title fight race.

Recently, Saunders, in an exclusive interaction with iFL TV, opened up on this vicious loss and more. He said, “If I wanted to go down on one knee with a broken eye socket, it could’ve easily been done. I went over a minute and still carried on… Anybody who knows me personally knows that’s not in me, ever.” (h/t Michael Benson)

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Billy Joe Saunders began the fight well, and he had his moments in the first couple of rounds. But post that, it was all about Canelo Alvarez who maintained control and dictated proceedings. The pound-for-pound king used uppercut as his prime weapon. One of these punches made the difference as it broke Saunders’ orbital bone.

‘Superb’ failed to press Canelo. That said, to save him from further damage, his team asked the referee to stop the fight after round 8.

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Should Billy Joe Saunders have continued?

If Saunders had continued that fight against Canelo, needless to say, the latter would have sent him out on a stretcher. Considering that, ‘Superb’s team took the right decision to stop the fight, as he would have been a sitting duck for the Mexican.

USA Today via Reuters

Also, there was so much to appreciate about Saunders in that fight. He fought like a lion and kept bouncing back. What do you draw off Saunders’ response to the allegations that he quit in May? Let us know in the comments below.

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Written by:

Prathamesh Singh Chauhan

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Prathamesh Singh Chauhan is a Boxing Author at EssentiallySports. He is a graduate from the International Institute of Sports Management who combines his love for sports, particularly combat sports, and his flair for writing and analysis to help him in his day-to-day work. He has prior professional experience with sporting organizations such as Star Sports, Khelo India, and NBA.
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