Superb Alvarez stops Saunders to unify super-middleweight titles
Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez produced a devastating uppercut to leave a distraught Billy Joe Saunders unable to rise from his stool after eight rounds of their world title unification bout.
Just as Saunders looked to be gaining a footing, the Mexican found a shot which caused an instant swelling over the British fighter’s right eye, BBC Sport reported.
Saunders’ trainer called the bout off, with his fighter unable to see.
“I think I broke his cheek,” said Alvarez. “The truth is I knew it.”
Alvarez, 30, added, “I guessed in the corner and told my trainer Eddie Reynoso ‘I broke his cheek’.”
Within seconds of landing the pinpoint blow – made more forceful by the fact Saunders was crouching into the shot – Alvarez raised his hands in front of his rival, ruthlessly letting the 73,126 in attendance know that he had broken the resistance of a man now at his mercy.
The champion beat his chest defiantly when it became clear Saunders would not rise for the ninth. He had married patience with ferocity in seeing off the seventh British opponent of his career to now hold three of the four world titles at super-middleweight.
As an emotional Alvarez was left in the ring in front of a record indoor crowd for a boxing event in the US, footage on the big screen inside Arlington’s AT&T Stadium showed a heartbroken Saunders visibly in pain on his walk back to
his changing room. The 31-year-old was quickly taken to hospital with a suspected broken eye socket, an injury which has proven difficult to overcome for the likes of British fighter Kell Brook in recent years.