Saunders Ready To Take Down Canelo
The boxing world has been waiting for Canelo to be challenged at middleweight. Given the right opponent, anything is possible. Billy Joe Saunders believes he is that guy that can get it done.
The current WBO Super-Middleweight Champion was rumored to be facing Canelo back in May, but the fight was seemingly pushed back to June as a result of the coronavirus. Saunders (29-0) is willing to wait for the fight to take place. On an Instagram Live chat, Saunders talked about Canelo and his current state. After moving up to super-middleweight from middleweight, Canelo (53-1-2) went to Light-Heavyweight and beat Sergey Kovalev for the WBO Light-Heavyweight Title.
With Canelo’s focus back on the middleweight division, Saunders believes prime Canelo has already come and gone.
“I rate him as the best pound-for-pound at the moment,” Saunders stated, via Bad Left Hook. “I really do rate him, I think that he’s a brilliant fighter, he’s complete, but the thing is, I believe that we’ve seen the best of him. We haven’t seen the best of me yet. I have seen the absolute best of him; the Golovkin fight twice, the Danny Jacobs fight, he’s not going to get any better than that.
Saunders is coming off of a TKO-win against Marcelo Esteban Coceres back in November to retain his WBO belt. The former WBO Middleweight Champion has 14 wins via knockout, and was recently showcased to the world on the KSI v. Logan Paul II card.
There is a chance the fight doesn’t happen due to the rumored Canelo-Gennadiy Golovkin trilogy bout. Since going back-to-back against Golovkin (1-0-1), Canelo went through Rocky Fielding, Daniel Jacobs and Kovalev. While Saunders hasn’t had the resume of fights as Canelo has, he is confident in his ability. Praising Canelo, Saunders is hoping to make a true statement against the Mexican fighter.
“I believe on my night — as long as everything is bang-on right for me — I believe I’ve got the beating of Canelo Alvarez, but he’s a brilliant champion. You have to beat the best to be the best.”