It’s time for some big-time boxing on a massive stage. Unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez will put his pair of titles on the line against WBO champ Billy Joe Saunders in a blockbuster main event inside AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Saturday night (8 p.m. on DAZN, sign up now). Alvarez is dogged in his pursuit of becoming an undisputed champion in the 168-pound division and has just two more titles to collect and seal his fate among the sport’s all-time greats.
Central to what the fight will actually look like is whether Saunders (30-0-1, 14 KOs) presents just another challenge in a line of necessary hurdles needing cleared for Alvarez (55-1-2, 37 KOs) to become the division’s undisputed champion or whether the brash southpaw from the U.K. actually represents much more as the key protagonist in a potential trap-fight scenario for boxing’s pound-for-pound best fighter.
If the chaos of fight week taught us anything it’s that Saunders, the reigning WBO champion, appears to bring a level of mental toughness, pure guts and the sly ability as a never-ending troll to present a challenge that will be unique to recent Alvarez opponents — from Rocky Fielding and Sergey Kovalev to Callum Smith and Avni Yildirim — who proved to be much more lamb than lion in the face of Alvarez’s sublime skill.
“I’ve been boxing since I have been five years old and been dragged up on the Gypsy camps,” Saunders said during Thursday’s final press conference. “We can all have the tough talk growing up as kids but I’m here for a reason. There is no other reason for me to be apart of this thing other than to win.
“It’s not about the fame, it’s not about anything else, it’s not about the publicity. Win. And I don’t think he has had somebody come to win for a very, very long time. A lot of people turn up, fly in, collect checks and they are out but we haven’t had someone with the heart, soul and IQ that I’ll bring to the ring on Saturday night to win.”
