Billy Joe Saunders (30-1, 14 KOs) has been spared immediate jail time after pleading guilty to violent disorder stemming from a mass brawl at a baby shower, receiving a 15-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months at Warwick Crown Court.
Saunders was one of nine men involved in the November 2021 incident at Poppy’s Club in Bulkington, where one man was stabbed through the hand with a flick knife and another man was allegedly seen with a gun.
The court heard that Saunders emptied a beer bottle to use as a weapon, wrestled with one man while trying to strike him with it, threw bottles across the room and landed six punches on four men in four seconds.
Judge Thomas Rochford said Saunders, as a professional boxer, should have been better able to control his emotions, while also acknowledging that he became involved later than some of the other participants.
Saunders’ defense argued that his life had spiraled following his 2021 loss to Canelo Alvarez, which left him with a fractured eye socket and effectively ended his boxing career. His legal team said Saunders had been drinking heavily and gained significant weight in the months that followed.
Saunders was ordered to pay a £1,000 fine (approximately $1,320) and £1,000 in costs (approximately $1,320), while also completing 200 hours of unpaid work.
It is not Saunders’ first disciplinary or legal issue. In 2020, the British Boxing Board of Control fined him £15,000 (approximately $19,800) over a social media video that appeared to condone domestic violence.
He was also fined £100,000 (approximately $132,000) by the BBBofC in 2018 over a separate misconduct incident involving a video in which he appeared to offer a woman drugs.
In 2025, Saunders was also given a community order after pleading guilty to hare coursing, receiving 60 hours of unpaid work and a five-year ban on keeping dogs.