Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
CAN HELL O
Saunders fights to save his career as he has surgery on his eye socket after Alvarez blow
BILLY JOE SAUNDERS faces a huge fight to save his career after the shattering loss to Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
Saunders had surgery in Dallas last night on a fractured eye socket and promoter Eddie Hearn fears he will be out for “a long, long time”.
He lost his proud unbeaten record and WBO supermiddleweight title to Alvarez and Hearn cast doubt over Saunders’ future because of the seriousness of his injury.
“He’s gone to hospital and I believe he’ll have that operated on immediately, so he’s going to be out for a long, long time,” said the Matchroom chief. “But he’s a world-class fighter, he’s a two-weight world champion, who lost to the pound-for-pound No.1.
“If he wants to carry on, there’re some big fights out there for him. Equally, he may feel he’s got to a stage where he’s been there, he’s done it, he’s seen it all. We’ll back him 100 percent.”
Some fans will feel little sympathy for Saunders, especially after he criticised Daniel Dubois for quitting against Joe Joyce when he bust his eye.
Rival Chris Eubank Jnr called him out and filmed himself laughing at the defeat, as he showed off his £10,000 betting slip on Alvarez to win inside the distance.
Yet as unloved as Saunders is in Britain because of his sick behaviour, he deserves credit for a valiant performance.
The Traveller was competitive against wreckingball Alvarez, before the four-division world champ smashed his eye with a devastating right uppercut.
Saunders could not see out of the eye as he sat on his stool at the end of the eighth and his trainer Mark Tibbs sensibly pulled him out.
“I spoke to Mark Tibbs,” said Hearn. “He said he couldn’t see and he wouldn’t let him go out.
“You could see as soon as he hit him that he’d done his eye socket.”
Saunders, 31, was behind on all three scorecards at the time of the stoppage and Glenn Feldman and Max Deluca had Alvarez ahead 78-74, which was well off.
Alvarez started well and there was real spite in his body shots, perhaps because Saunders’ disrespectful behaviour had made this unification clash personal.
Saunders came into the contest by the fourth and enjoyed success with his jabs. He landed more consistently in the sixth and seventh rounds, only for Alvarez to end the fight when he detonated that brutal right uppercut.
Alvarez knew Saunders was beaten and raised his arms to the delight of his fans among the US record indoor crowd of 73,126 at the AT&T Stadium.
The 30-year-old is now the WBC, WBA Super and WBO champion, and wants IBF title holder Caleb Plant next, to become the first Mexican to reign undisputed at 168lb.
“I said the fight would develop as it did, but it was not as difficult as I expected,” he said. “I broke his cheek and knew he wouldn’t come out. It was too dangerous for him.”