Billy Joe Saunders explains issue with the Canelo Alvarez contract
WBO world super middleweight champion “Superb” Billy Joe Saunders (29-0, 14 KO’s) has made a regular habit of shooting his own career in the foot by way of his thick-headed social media posts or imploding major fights by various means. The gifted UK southpaw twice derailed showdowns with WBO world middleweight champion Demetrius “Boo-Boo” Andrade (29-0, 18 KO’s). And more recently, he pulled out of a mega-fight with WBA super world middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KO’s).
Saunders provided a laundry list of reasons for why he couldn’t face Alvarez next. Yet, his chief gripe has been he did not have the proper time to train for the prizefight. While it sounds like a plausible enough rationale, many are still confused due to him being the leading candidate for the bout as far back as March.
NO PROPER TIME
Not only was it global news that he was the top choice, it’s a well-known fact that Canelo prefers to fight on his Mexican Independence holiday in September. Yet, Saunders claimed he also had no clue when the bout would take place.
“Listen, they didn’t want to give me proper time to train and they wanted to take millions of pounds from me. We all sat down at MTK and had a chat. We decided that if they aren’t going to do it properly, we move on. Canelo hadn’t even signed the contract yet. Only my signature was on it.”
“I’m not going into fighting Canelo for a payday. I’m going in to win the fight. I could just take the money and say I’ll fight with seven weeks to go, but they haven’t even given a real date yet. There’s no date on the contract. They need to give me the proper time to prepare. I want to win this fight and then get the rematch.”
“Before, they wanted me to fight on some boat or island or something in America. I said listen, I’d fight Canelo in Mexico, I’ll fight him in his own backyard if they give me the right notice. I’d beat him in Mexico, it doesn’t bother me…The Canelo fight would have been lovely but I’m not going into it without a good solid camp. I want to give the fans proper fights. But if they [Team Canelo] are trying to take money away and giving me less time, then it won’t happen.”
ON TO THE NEXT ONE
With Canelo off the table and his legal issues behind him, it will be interesting to see who Superb locks horns with next.
“We’ve got Callum Smith for December. Then there’s Andrade for December and there’s Eubank for December. But ideally, for me, it would be Smith.”
“…But now, I’m looking at getting a run out in October. Then it will be a massive fight in December.”
By: Bakari Simpson
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