By Brad Slotnick: Super featherweight champion Oscar Valdez suspects that Billy Joe Saunders will mentally quit once Canelo Alvarez starts landing his big power punches on Saturday night.
Valdez believes that Saunders (30-0, 14 KOs) will fall apart when he’s getting walloped by Alvarez, and he’s unable to land his punches as he normally does.
It’ll be mentally taxing on Saunders, and he won’t be able to stay in there with the punishment he’s taking and the sound of 70,000 fans rooting for Canelo at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Billy Joe has the Mayweather fighting style
Saunders will have his WBO super middleweight title that he’ll be hoping to hold onto when he steps in there with WBA/WBC/Ring Magazine unified champ Canelo (55-1-2, 37 KOs).
Everything goes well for Saunders; he’ll outsmart Canelo and hand him his second career defeat.
The British fighter has got the Mayweather-esque fighting style to defeat Canelo, but we don’t know if he’s got the stamina or the chin to hold up for 12 rounds of unrelenting pressure.
It’s going to take great conditioning for Billy Joe to keep moving and not let Canelo get comfortable in there. Canelo’s recent opponents Avni Yildirim and Callum Smith, stood in front of him and presented themselves as easy targets.
Saunders will be surprised by Canelo’s power
“Definitely Canelo’s punch,” said Oscar Valdez to Little Giant Boxing about what will surprise Saunders on Saturday. “I’ve seen Canelo spar heavyweights, and heavyweights say they can feel Canelo’s punch.
Saunders has fought a guy with better power than Canelo in David Lemieux, and he took his shots well, beating him by a one-sided 12 round decision in 2017.
If Saunders can fight the way he did against Lemieux, Canelo needs a knockout to win. He’s not going to beat Saunders by a decision if he’s in that form on Saturday.
It’s been four years since Saunders fought Lemieux, and it’s questionable whether he can still fight at hat level. Although Saunders is still young and in his prime at 31, he’s not had a serious fight in many years.
Also, Saunders has repeatedly ballooned up in weight between his fights, which has hurt his performances.
“So once Billy Joe feels the real power of Canelo, he’s going to be surprised,” said Valdez. “When he feels the punch, and when he starts throwing punches, and he’s not hitting Canelo because Canelo has a very good defense, he’s going to start getting worried. Erik Morales is right; he might quit.
“I think he’s going to catch him with a great body shot because when someone that is always moving around, you want to hit them to the body, so they lose their legs,” said Valdez about Canelo hurting Saunders. “But I can also see Canelo landing one big shot from his right hand or left hook,” said Valdez.
