Saul “Canelo” Alvarez isn’t just the unified super middleweight champion – he’s also the unequivocal face of boxing and its fattest cash cow. After nearly 20 years as a professional, most of them on the sport’s biggest stages, Alvarez has proved his mettle as an A-list star on both sides of the ropes.
Most recently, for example, in a press conference earlier this month to promote his Sept. 14 bout in Las Vegas, Alvarez verbally sparred with opponent Edgar Berlanga – a newbie in the role of narrative foil in a blockbuster fight. The experience gap showed.
While Berlanga scrambled between thanking his “Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ” to firing off curses in English and Spanish, flippantly tossing around the n-word and – of course – claiming that he “walks with God,” Alvarez controlled the proceedings with a mixture of detached bemusement, dry wit and biting remarks. These affairs may represent the lowest form of pageantry, but at least Canelo executes with minimal cringe, rarely losing his cool in the face of clumsy button-pushing.
Recently, though, the question was posed to Alvarez on the Premier Boxing Champions YouTube channel: Was there ever an opponent that pissed you off? Alvarez didn’t hesitate to name the offender.
“Billy Joe Saunders,” he said. “That fucker pissed me off. That’s why he gets what he deserves.”
In their 2021 super middleweight unification bout, both Alvarez and Saunders brought a belt – and plenty of bile – to the ring at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Alvarez gradually took apart his naturally larger opponent, showboating and egging on the crowd at levels unprecedented for him, and eventually forced an eighth-round corner stoppage after breaking Saunders’ orbital bone. Saunders hasn’t fought again.
Promotions are regularly driven by friction and faux animosity, and Alvarez didn’t get into specifics about character in the short video. But Saunders’ name appears on a laundry list of indefensible transgressions, including impersonating a police officer, posting a social media video offering advice on how to hit a female partner during the COVID lockdown, and more.
“Some fighters, they talk to sell the fight or themselves,” Alvarez said. “But I think he’s a bad person, and I really enjoyed to beat that guy.”
Read the full article here
