WBO super-middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders will fight Mexican superstar Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in May, according to reports this week.
The Athletic reported that Britain’s Saunders will take on the WBC and WBA champion, considered by many as the best active pound-for-pound fighter, in Las Vegas on 1 or 8 May.
Alvarez will first have to get past Turkey’s Avni Yildirim on 27 February.
Although there are no guarantees in boxing, a Yildrim win would go down as one of the biggest shocks of all time.
Saunders was close to securing a fight with Alvarez in May 2020 before the coronavirus outbreak forced a rethink.
When boxing returned, Alvarez instead took on – and convincingly beat – Liverpool’s Callum Smith in December.
For some time, boxing fans had considered Saunders slick and technically astute style to be one to pose problems for Alvarez.
But the two-weight world champion, unbeaten in 30 fights, has only fought four times in the past three years, his most recent win coming against fellow Briton Martin Murray in December.
Smith does not rate Saunders’ chances, telling Sky Sports: “I don’t think anyone beats him [Alvarez].”
That sentiment is shared among most fans, with the general feeling being that four-weight world champion ‘Canelo’, whose only defeat was against Floyd Mayweather in 2013, will be too experienced for the inactive Saunders…
