Billy Joe Saunders on loss to Canelo: ‘I got beat by the better man’

By Boxing News - 09/15/2021 - Comments

By Scott Gilfoid: Billy Joe Saunders admits that Canelo Alvarez was the better man last May when he stopped him after he suffered an eye injury in the 8th round and had to be pulled out of the fight.

The way Saunders is talking, he sounds like he only believes that Canelo was the better fighter on that night only. So if they were to fight again, Billy might have the delusion that he would beat Canelo.

What’s interesting from all of this is Saunders now believes his earning power has increased, which pure lunacy.

That’s not how it goes in boxing. When you get beat, your earning power goes down, not up.

Saunders says Canelo was better that night

I got beat by the better man on the night. People can say, ‘You were up, we had you level,‘ but the main thing is winning, and Canelo won,” said Billy Joe Saunders to iFL TV on his loss to Canelo Alvarez last May.

Image: Billy Joe Saunders on loss to Canelo: 'I got beat by the better man'

“He’s a great fighter; I take my hat off to him. On that night, the better man won,” said Saunders on his fight with Canelo.

It sounds like Saunders has been listening a little too much to the back slappers praising him for being slightly competitive with Canelo in the first quarter of the fight.

For Saunders, it was the high point of his career taking on Canelo and being carried for a few rounds before he lowered the boom on him.

A high achiever type of fighter wouldn’t be happy with that performance, but obviously, Billy Joe isn’t that type of individual.

Only BIG money will bring Saunders back

“I’m not really worried if I box again. If I don’t box again, it doesn’t worry me,” said Saunders.

“I’ve invested my money well. I have to go away to training for six or seven months. I have to take myself out of my comfort zone. There are certain fights that could get you up to do that.

“Obviously, a Canelo rematch would get me up to do that. They would have to be the right fights to get me back in boxing because I’m not interested in being a three-time world champion anymore.

“If I come back, I’ll have one more for the crowd, entertainment, and go out on that note. My dad doesn’t want me to box no more.

“He says, ‘You’ve done what you’ve done. Call it a day. You’ve achieved everything that you set out to do. I’m not really bothered to fight again, but it would have to be for big, big money. I would like it to be connected with Sky if I was going to come back,” Saunders said.

Billy Joe’s assistance that he must be given big money for him to get off the couch to return to the ring is precisely going to keep him out of action.

Look at it this way. Saunders was NEVER a big-money guy before he fought Canelo, so why would he command big cash now that he was beaten and quit?

If anything, Saunders should return to the kind of money he was making before he fought Canelo.

The fact that Saunders is back to contender status should mean that he’s making less money than what he was getting as the WBO 168-lb champion.

It’s interesting how fighters tend to destroy their own careers after getting good money in a fight or two. They then say they MUST get similar cash after they’ve been beaten.

Ultimately, what happens is the fighters wreck their careers with their sense of entitlement and their feeling of self-importance.

I hate to say it, but Saunder is showing the characteristics of someone on his high horse because he shared the ring with Canelo and was slightly competitive.

Billy Joe needs to put his feet back on the ground and realize what just happened to him last May. There’s no glory in quitting on your stool.

Saunders insists he’s the A-side

“Obviously, he mentions my name to keep his name relevant,” said Saunders about Chris Eubank Jr. “If he were really worried about fighting the big names, he would have boxed Golovkin in 2016.

“Kell Brook jumped up two weights to take him on. He could have had numerous big fights.

“The only two big fights he took were George Groves and myself, and he got beat in both. I seen something where he said, ‘I’m the A-side.’

“That’s the reason why Frank Warren, Eddie Hearn, and even his own brother-in-law can’t work with him. They can’t work with him because he’s such hard work.

“We tried to make the fight with Frank numerous times. He knows he can afford to fight the people he is now, getting his underground 150s. There’s a difference between A and B-level fighters.

“You only learn that through experience. He hasn’t beaten anybody that is even on the verge of a world title. My argument is I beat him the first time.

“I’m the A-side because if somebody beat me and I could get a rematch, I’d take less money. I’d do what I needed to do to get the fight on. So that’s the bottom line of it,” said Billy Joe.

Few boxing fans would disagree with Saunders with his comment about being the A-side for a fight with Eubank Jr. With that said, Eubank Jr. feels he’s in the position of strength because he’s not coming off of a stoppage loss to Canelo.

For Eubank Jr., it’s not just that Alvarez stopped Saunders; it’s the way he meekly bowed out on his stool.

Eubank Jr. wanted to see Saunders go out on his shield like a warrior rather than letting the fight get halted in between rounds after he was injured in round eight.

Eubank Jr. is deluded

“I won, you lost,” said Saunders about his 12 round split decision win over Chris Eubank Jr. in 2014.

“That’s it, that’s boxing, it happens. If you want to argue A and B-side. My record, 31 fights, 30 wins. His record is 2 losses, and my record is one loss.

“My record says two-time world champion. His record says, IBO world title. He just wants to stay relevant in the boxing game.

“There are plenty of fighters better than him. I can’t see the fight [with Eubank Jr.] ever getting made because he’s the A-side.

“If he wants to be the A-side, let him go win a world title and prove it. If he can prove he’s the A-side, then he can be the A-side, no problem.

“People know how hard he is to work with. Maybe he’ll change his tune. I don’t see any superstar there, to be fair.

“Look, I’ve always said it’s got to be good money for me to come back for that fight.

“For me to go away and get the bit between my teeth. I would never go to another camp again unless I was 100% happy

“In every single line was dotted. We all know he’s deluded, and he was going to be the next Floyd Mayweather. He’s been to Floyd Mayweather’s gym. That’s about it. In my eyes, all the Eubanks are deluded,” said Saunders.

The way that Billy Joe was so worked up and animated when Eubank Jr’s name was mentioned, it seems clear that he’s thinking seriously about returning to the ring.

Saunders might want too much money if he’s going to insist on being the A-side in the negotiations for the Eubank Jr. There’s a lot of pride on Eubank Jr’s part, and he’s not going to want to be given table scraps.

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