Saunders Under Fire After Past Comments on Dubois Come Back To Haunt Him
On Saturday night at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Billy Joe Saunders came up short in his WBO, WBA, WBC unification showdown with Canelo Alvarez after an eye injury forced him to retire from the fight.
Saunders had been boxing well throughout the contest.
In round eight, Canelo land a big shot that immediately caused Saunders’ right eye to swell, and likely caused a fractured orbital bone.
The eye of Saunders was in bad shape just before round nine was due to begin. He indicated to his corner that he was no longer able to see from the eye and the contest was stopped.
Saunders is now under fire from fans, due to his comments about heavyweight contender Daniel Dubois in 2020.
Last year, Dubois suffered a fractured orbital bone in his heavyweight collision with Joe Joyce.
After getting tagged on an already injured eye, Dubois' momentarily lost his vision and immediately went down to a knee for the full count.
Saunders was highly critical of the way Dubois went out.
“Fighters get in that ring and we know what’s on the line. Every fighter needs to understand and the fans need to understand that. In the past, we’ve seen a lot of tragedies in boxing, deaths in the ring. Before I go on one knee I’d like to go out on my back with my pulse stopped," Saunders told DAZN's AK & Barak show.
“Everyone has their own thought process in the ring and what went on in the ring I don’t know. He obviously felt he could not continue. You look at the greats, the eyes, the face, we get through that. That’s the path in life we choose for a living. We punch people in the face and get punched in the face.
“If my two eye sockets were broken, my jaw was broken, my teeth were out, my nose was smashed, my brain was beaten, I was not stopping until I was knocked out or worse. I don’t agree with a man taking the knee and letting the ref count him out.”
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