Alvarez adds title with TKO against Saunders
ARLINGTON, Texas – Canelo Alvarez jumped into his trainer’s arms while Billy Joe Saunders slumped in his corner with a towel draped over his head.
The wildly popular Mexican fighter added another super middleweight title belt in front of a huge crowd in another fight in Texas. Not only did Saunders have his first loss as a pro, the English fighter might have a broken eye socket.
Alvarez set up another victory in his latest Cinco de Mayo bout with a staggering right hand in the middle of the eighth round, sending 73,126 alreadyscreaming fans at the home of the Dallas Cowboys into a frenzy as we waved his arms to encourage the noise while the round continued.
Saunders’ corner waved in defeat before the ninth while treating a cut under his right eye. Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 knockouts) added Saunders’ WBO belt to his WBA and WBC straps in his third fight in less than five months, and second in Texas.
It was the first loss in 31 fights for the 31-year-old Brit, who was taken to the hospital with a suspected broken orbital bone, fight spokesman Anthony Leaver said.
“I knew the fight was going to develop around the eighth round,” Alvarez, whose only defeat was to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013, said through an interpreter. “It wasn’t as difficult as I expected. I know my preparation is good and I improve day-by-day.”
While the wild celebration dragged on in the ring – to match a wild scene that included two fights in the crowd not far from it – Saunders eventually walked off, booed loudly every time he was shown on the huge video board above the canvas.
“He couldn’t see,” Saunders promoter Eddie Hearn said. “I spoke with (trainer) Mark Tibbs and he wouldn’t let him go out. I thought he boxed beautifully. Canelo took his time, Billy is so tricky, but Canelo busted him up.”
With pandemic restrictions on attendance long gone in Texas, the festive crowd at 80,000-seat AT&T Stadium was the biggest to date for a sporting event in the pandemic. Organizers have said it would break the U.S. indoor boxing attendance record of 63,352 set in 1978 at the Superdome in New Orleans when Muhammad Ali beat Leon Spinks.
It came a little more than a month after baseball’s Texas Rangers had their home opener in the first full pro sports stadium since the COVID-19 shutdown early last year, right next door at Globe Life Field.
The distinction shouldn’t last long with the Indianapolis 500 planning for about 135,000, or 40% of the track’s capacity, on May 30. But the pro-Mexico crowd enjoyed the moment, dumping decorum by booing in the early moments of the national anthem for Great Britain and singing along to the Mexican anthem.
The wildly popular Mexican fighter joined the folk singers and dancers during his ring walk, after emerging from the Cowboys’ locker room, which made sense for what amounted to a home fight for the redhead.