Billy Joe Saunders will be fighting Saul Canelo Alvarez on May 2 at 168 lbs in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight was agreed on today, and it’ll shown on DAZN from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Canelo (53-1-2, 35 KOs) will have WBA ‘regular’ super-middleweight title on the line in facing WBO champion Saunders (29-0, 14 KOs).
The press conference to announce the fight will be taking place next week. For the UK fans, they’ll be able to see the fight on DAZN.
Canelo could get outboxed by Saunders
If Saunders is able to outbox Canelo like he did against David Lemieux, he’ll regret taking this fight. Saunders has a style that is really difficult to deal with. If he was a baseball pitcher, he’d be a guy that throws a lot of knuckleballs and spitters. He’s a really difficult style, which makes you wonder why Canelo chose him over Callum Smith.
The reason is obvious. Saunders isn’t someone that can use his size and power to crush the short 5’8″ Canelo the way that the 6’3″ Callum Smith could. Perhaps the other reason is Saunders probably agreed to take the smaller money in order to get the fight. Saunders is said to be getting $8 million for the Canelo fight, which will be a career-high payday for him. It’s unknown how much Canelo is getting for the fight. He signed a $365 million, 11-fight deal.
This is Canelo’s 4th fight of his DAZN deal. His three previous matches came against Rocky Fielding, Danny Jacobs, and Sergey Kovalev. Only the Jacobs fight was against a dangerous opponent. Kovalev looked shot and weight drained after dealing with a rehydration clause. Canelo stopped the 36-year-old Kovalev in the 11th round on November 2 in Las Vegas.
Saunders, 30, has pushed for this fight for several years now, and he’s only now getting the chance. The chronic injuries that Saunders been dealing with and the lackluster match-making has kept him in the dark for most of his career.
Saunders finally getting a big fight
He doesn’t have any big wins on his resume, and that’s his chance of getting the important fights against Canelo and Gennadiy Golovkin. Saunders’s biggest career wins have come against David Lemieux, Chris Eubank Jr., and Andy Lee.
UK fan like the Canelo-Saunders fight, but less appealing to Americans. They’ve seen Saunders fight before, and his style is more negative, defensive and jab-focused. But it’s a fight that works for Canelo though, as he has a much better chance of beating Saunders than he would if he fought the other super-middleweight belt holders or some of the contenders.
A victory for Saunders will put him in a position to make excellent money in a rematch with Canelo, and that’s where he’ll do well.
