Canelo Alvarez vs Billy Joe Saunders is set for May 2nd in Las Vegas

Late rounds.

 

Saunders prime and the quality of his opponents are two separate things though? I wouldn't argue he's past his prime based on who he's fought in the past, although damage incurred can be a factor.

The biggest factor to me is weight. He struggled to make MW and finally stepped up to target a vacant WBO SMW belt. He may hold that now, but anyone who saw the deeply unimpressive performance in which he won it wouldn't be so confident that this is a guy in the prime of his career.

May have been an off day, or struggles with the extra weight, or it may have been his lifestyle catching up with him. If the latter, he may have passed his prime already.

 

Ydksab, I thought you would have figured this out by now. I’m constantly laughing at what you believe is happening and figure, “well, he’s just learning and is following whatever current narrative feels most comfortable, but he will learn”. Well you’re not learning.

 

Can they just hurry up and formally announce it.

Canelo is elite and prime so he’s the clearly favourite, I hope Billy Joe raises his game and makes it a close fight. He can be inconsistent but he can box

 

I've wanted to see this fight for so long.

I've always been a fan of Billy's, but I have to wonder what he's now got left. His career has been stop-start for so long now.

Ideally, I'd liked to have seen him fight Canelo, coming off of a great performance.

I was hoping to see a Smith fight with the winner fighting Canelo in September.

Billy can have a great camp, but it's just not the same as taking a fight of this magnitude whilst been in a run of form.

 

Canelo fights are a sham, the house fighter always wins no matter what goes on in the ring

 

Canelo takes this and probably stops BJS too. He looks strong at 168 with the whole Vegas commission behind him.
The odds will reflect it too.

 

What form? Besides the lone win everyone clings to, point to this “form” that has a chance vs canelo. What fight should I look at where bjs looks quality against quality.

 

Billy's not a chump.

Trout isn't vastly better.

Don't exaggerate.

The trouble with Billy is his unprofessionalism.

Billy can give Canelo a great fight if he fights to his full capabilities. The problem is, we don't know what he's got left.

 

He hasn't got any recent form.

That's my point.

He's never had a sustained run of form in his career.

It's continually stop-start, due to injuries and being overweight etc.

It's very frustrating being a fan of his.

 

Age and ring age are 2 very different things.

Canelo is on a high and he's the prime of his life.

Billy's career has stalled and he isn't in any kind of form.

 

I just don’t think he’s ever really had the form to beat canelo. That’s why I was asking for a fight against a top level guy where bjs has looked like he could compete on canelos level. Even some of the best ever have had an off night, so it’s not inconceivable that lemieux could have had one too. To determine if he didn’t and bjs is just that good, one needs to look at other fights where he looked that good against guys on that level. Those are the fights I want to look at to see what his fans see. Actual evidence of this mastery over legitimate top level resistance. I’m struggling to find one.

 

Billy can compete on Canelo's level.

Lemieux didn't have a bad night, it was just a horrible stylistic match up for him.

You won't find another 'Lemieux' type win on his resume, as he hasn't fought other guys like that.

His matches against Ryder and Lee were chess matches against 2 good, southpaw boxers.

Lemiuex isn't a boxer. He's a fighter. He's very limited but has got huge power.

This is an intriguing match up if Billy is in great condition.

Despite his resume not coming anywhere near Canelo's, Billy is a world class southpaw with very good movement.

 

I guess we will see come fight night. As they say, the proof is in the pudding.

 

Dude in what world is Saunders better than Trout or Lara? Who has he beaten to warrent such praise?