Tyson Fury is tired of what he views as favoritism that Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has been showing Canelo Alvarez over Billy Joe Saunders in the final nine days before their unification fight at 168 on May 8th.
Heavyweight champion Fury believes that Hearn is going to wind up humiliated after WBO super middleweight champion Saunders (30-0, 14 KOs) out-boxes WBA/WBC champ Canelo Alvarez (55-1-2, 37 KOs) and sends him crashing down to his second career defeat at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
It’s going to take a lot of skills and luck for the 31-year-old Saunders to fulfill Fury’s prophecy for this fight, as he’s a clear underdog.
In fact, most boxing fans view the fight as a mismatch in favor of Canelo, and they don’t view Billy Joe as having nearly enough talent to make it a worthwhile fight to watch or bet on.
The southpaw Saunders is a finesse fighter who wins his fights by outboxing his opponents and making them look bad.
Saunders has been able to do that mostly because he’s been matched against fringe-level fighters like Shefat Isfui, David Lemieux, Willie Monroe Jr, Martin Murray, Charles Adamu, Artur Akavov, and Marcelo Esteban Coceres.
Billy Joe’s promoters have wrapped him in cotton wool and matched him with utter care to ensure he wouldn’t lose until he started making money.
Now, after 12 years as a pro, Saunders is finally ready to pay off. Still, predictably he’s seen as having no chance of winning against Canelo because he’s not been tested against elite-level fighters yet, and he doesn’t have the power to keep the Mexican star off of him.
Fury: Saunders will give Canelo a boxing lesson
“Keep s**** Canelo off, and when my boy Billy Joe Saunders gives him an absolute boxing lesson and knocks him out, you’re going to have egg on your face, boy,” said Fury on social media, taking a shot at Hearn.
“You’re backing the wrong horse, you’re backing the Mexican over the Brit, you sausage,” said Fury about Hearn.
Boxing is what Canelo does very well, so Saunders will have to try something other than trying to win with his skills. It’s hard to believe that Fury actually thinks Saunders can give Canelo a boxing lesson because it’s too hard even to imagine.
Saunders had all he could handle against the little-known Marcelo Coceres in 2019. He was losing that fight when he pulled out a knockout in the 11th round in a desperate comeback.
The good news is that if Saunders does get beaten by Canelo, it won’t be as bad for him as it would if he were to take a loss against one of his typical obscure opponents.
It won’t be hard on Saunder’s career if he gets trounced by Canelo as it would if he were to lose to someone like Monroe, Adamu, Isufi, or Akavat.
Still, there’s nowhere for Saunder’s to go to win another world title if he chooses to stay at super middleweight after the defeat.
Unless Canelo vacates some of his belts after he unifies later this year, Saunders will have to accept being a contender for the remainder of his career.
It’s too bad a better fighter doesn’t hold the WBO title rather than Saunders. It would be nice if David Benavidez held the WBO title because that would set up a fight between him and Canelo, and it would be a huge fight.
With Canelo fighting Saunders, only the British boxing fans are excited about this fight.
The Americans just see it as a mismatch because they’re not rooting for Saunders and seeing things that aren’t there like his home country fans.
Canelo has the focus on him
“Today, he put up some footage of me after the Callum Smith fight, before the Billy Joe Saunders fight was ever made, saying, ‘This guy [Canelo] may be unbeatable,'” said Hearn to Behind The Gloves about Saunders thinking he’s showing favoritism over Canelo.
“And ‘if I were to work with him [Canelo], he’d be my boss.’ I say that about every fighter. ‘Oh, there he is again.’ The Billy Joe fight wasn’t even made then.
“My job is to deliver for my fighters. Canelo Alvarez said to me, ‘I want to fight Billy Joe Saunders.’ Billy Joe Saunders said to me, ‘I want to fight Canelo Alvarez.’
“I made it happen. Now, you got, ‘He’s putting more focus on Canelo Alvarez.’Canelo Alvarez is the biggest star in American boxing. He and AJ are probably the two.
“So obviously, there’s going to be a lot of focus on Canelo Alvarez. Billy Joe won’t do any media. He’s just refused to do any media.
So obviously, all the attention, all the focus is on Canelo Alvarez. He’s [Saunders] isn’t getting any attention. He won’t do any media.
The U.S fans don’t know who Saunders is, and they just figure it’s another sap like Canelo’s last two opponents Callum Smith and Avni Yildirim.
Saunders can try and prove the fans wrong, but I don’t think he will.
Saunders is the toughest fight for Canelo
I’ve done my job. If he doesn’t want me around, there’s nothing I can do about it. But I’m a bit gutted about that because I’ve backed Billy Joe.
He’s done some silly things, but I’ve always backed him. I know he can be a bit idiotic, but he’s got a good heart. If people think I sold Billy Joe out, I could have done that many times over the past year.
I got him what he wanted [Canelo], and if he wins, I’ll be delighted for him. So he now has it in his head; I’m the enemy if he thinks that, no problem.
It’s a massive fight. The atmosphere next week is going to be absolutely off the charts. Part of me thinks Billy Joe is winding himself up in a ‘me against the world’ mentality.
It’s not a tactic, but rather a mind game type of thing. He’s in tremendous shape; it’s the toughest fight out there for Canelo Alvarez. This is a real fight,” said Hearn.
No one believes that Saunders is Canelo’s toughest fight, and I doubt that even Hearn believes what he’s saying.
These fighters are arguably better than Saunders and would give Canelo a much tougher fight:
- David Benavidez
- Edgar Berlanga
- Caleb Plant
- Daniel Jacobs
- Carlos Congora
- Vladimir Sishkin
- Bektemir Melikuziev
- Ronald Ellis
- David Morrell
- Aidos Yerbossynuly
