Saunders left broken by the brutal Canelo
THIS was not just the infliction of a first defeat. The shattering of a dream. The loss of a world title. The savage beating meted out by the best boxer on earth. This humiliation in front of the biggest indoor boxing crowd ever in America, as well as a global television audience of millions, will cut Billy Joe Saunders to the core — more painful than the fracturing of his right eye socket by Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. Saunders went out of the biggest fight he will ever have on his stool — not his shield. I shudder to consider if he will ever come to terms with this. However blinded his eye and agonising the internally bleeding wound, with which his corner forbade him to go back out for the ninth round in the AT&T Stadium in Dallas, a submission like this is anathema to the fighting culture of the traveller community — even if you are going to end up in hospital. To compound his misery, having been jeered into sport’s most spectacular colosseum by 73,000 Canelo fans, he was mocked by them as he sat with a towel over his head as news of his retirement came at the end of round eight. Indeed, promoter Eddie Hearn said Saunders was to have surgery on injuries which he described as ‘multiple fractures to the orbital area’. Canelo took particular pleasure in forcing the brutal stoppage he had had predicted in ‘the eighth or ninth round’. Saunders did not just get under his skin, he poked the beast. Not wise. It was almost as if he waited for his appointed moment to finish the job. Saunders began well behind the southpaw jab, which fellow traveller Tyson Fury urged him to use rather than his normal Artful Dodger routine. It earned him more rounds on scorecards than Canelo would have been happy with. He then gave the fourweight, five-time world champion more of the style problems which Canelo had expected in the early rounds. The Hispanic throng were occasionally quiet, until their idol worked Saunders out. Canelo began to taunt Billy Joe, imitating his come-and-get-me beckonings before the eighth. Then the onslaught came. Thundering body shots then crunching right uppercuts and left hooks to the head. The most vital of those smashed into his right eye as Saunders tried to swerve away. Perhaps he could have gone on. Maybe for one last, desperate throw of the dice. But it would have achieved nothing and risked his health. Saunders had done enough to be closer, by my reckoning, at the end of the eighth — 77 points to 75 — than on the judges’ scorecards but it was never going to be enough. Canelo was always going to take Billy Joe’s WBO title, to supplement his WBC, WBA and Ring magazine belts as he continues his pursuit of ‘more history’ as the first undisputed supermiddleweight ruler. The last part of that will be his target in September when he takes on undefeated IBF world champion Caleb Plant. But whither Billy Joe. This was his ultimate moment. Without that motivation, can he summon up the effort of will and sacrifice which brought him to Dallas in top physical condition? The omens are not good. Fury, having got off the floor while barely conscious against Deontay Wilder, is still the Gypsy King. Saunders the Romany prince has fallen.