Watched it again last night and thought Saunders did ok but he was never winning that fight. Forget the injury without it Canelo still would have got him out of there. Saunders threw some nice punches but With no effect on Canelo they were not doing any damage. Canelo knew from round 1 he could just walk forward and try to land power shots. Canelo can fight a lot smarter and cleverer than he did Saturday night but didn't need too.
With all his pre-fight talk plus how he had a go at DDD he has left himself wide open to being labelled a quitter
Yea. I think it was rounds 4,5,6 he looked like he was really enjoying himself and was making Canelo miss quite a lot,
I am not a fan of BJS but I have to defend the Mark Tibbs , not that he needs defending ,for pulling him out it was the correct decision and the medical reports substantiate this.BJS has made a rod for his own back with some of his crass comments particularly around the Dubois incident , interestingly Dubois now has Tibbs as his trainer ? The health and welfare of a boxer must always be the overruling factor .
BJS quit, there's no shame in quitting but when you've spouted off about a "travellers code" and slated other fighters you look like a tool. Also I think (for me) his stock went down, there wasn't a moment during the fight that I thought he could win. He's a playground bully who met his match.
I didn't think he did anything wrong. He saw an opening to hit canelo with the right hand. Canelo moved out of the way and countered him. The punch was definitely on. Its the difference between good and elite. I had Saunders winning at the time but thought he would slow down at the end and either lose on points or get knocked out.
I had it 4 rounds to 3 for Canelo prior to the 8th and for me the tide was starting to turn in Canelo's favour as much due to his body punching, which he was landing from the first round as anything else. The punch that Canelo landed to smash BJS' orbital was thrown with consummate, elite level timing as BJS was ducking into it, it was obvious straight away that there was some serious damage inflicted. Even I could see that the normally prominent cheek bone was now concave and there was an immediate lesion under the eye caused by a likely bone fracture, no doubt about it, a fight ending injury and Tibbs made the only call under the circumstances. Unfortunately for BJS, he has made some comments in the past that have come back to haunt him. Personally, I doubt he gives two effs, he's a grown man and will just have to take it on the chin until it blows over, the price you pay for having an opinion on Social Media but, him coming out for the 9th round would have been pure insanity.
Self examination is something BJS lacks. At the first sign of trouble this “proper fighting man” did what he said he would never do. Quit.
BJS stock has risen. Really dude? He went into the biggest fight of his career and ran backwards shoe shining after getting pinged by a couple of left hooks to the body. Not planting his feet once or trying to hurt Canelo after that. He was slow footed and getting walked back to the ropes by a Canelo who is hardly fleet of foot himself from round 2 onwards. I think this was a classic cash out by Billie. He quit way before he got the injury too. When he was getting nailed by huge body shots. He just kept moving back and shoe shining, popping out pretend punches with no pop on them. There was no going out on your sword moment by Billie was there? When someone put it on him he meekly moved backwards got broken down and then the injury came. He was getting Knocked out that round or the next round anyway. He clearly doesn’t belong at 168. He doesn’t have the speed as a boxer or the pop to compete at that weight at the highest level. The Lemieux performance will always be peak Billie. It ha been a downward spiral of inactivity and blowing up in weight and poor opposition ever since. Either fight at 160 or retire. Also either stay in shape and stay active or retire. I don’t think his heart has been in the sport for a long time now. He is sorted financially already.
Had he fought Canelo at 160 within 9 months of fighting Lemieux he would have done a lot better and been in with a better chance of winning. I still think he would have lost but he would have at least probably lasted 12 rounds. His heart hasn’t been in the sport since that fight if truth be told.
