Canelo Álvarez vs. Billy Joe Saunders unification fight live chat

Goodnight, everyone.

Canelo basically had two even fights with GGG. We have a general idea of how good he is. Jones might have been top 5 all-time pound for pound, but there’s no way we can say that.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/liveblog/canelo-alvarez-billy-joe-saunders-live-updates-odds-results

Make sure to follow our liveblog for post-fight analysis and updates.

Dylan and Iliana, a true pleasure

Thanks, all.

Well, that just about does it for us tonight. Thank you all for joining.

Agree — and the lack of a true test pretty much keeps Jones off of any all-time list.

From our friend Albert Perez, who couldn't join us because of technical difficulties

In this case, he really might have a broken orbital bone, but these reports are usually totally BS. “They think he might have a fracture back, kidney failure and impending blindness …” 24 hours later: “He has a bruised cheek.”

I really think Nunn would’ve boxed circles around Canelo.

Per DAZN, Billy Joe Saunders has been taken to the hospital for a possible broken orbital bone.

Mayweather was a blown up lightweight. But, yeah, even then, Alvarez is too slow.

Canelo Alvarez is really happy to be the owner of the WBC Mestizo belt, apparently

Context

a prime Roy Jones destroying Canelo? So I'm guessing you don't agree with Eddy Reynoso's assessment that Canelo in his prime would have beaten Mayweather?

Aside from depriving us of good fights, the sport’s talent drain keeps us from seeing how good the top fighters really are. Obviously, a prime Roy Jones destroys Canelo, but what about guys like James Toney and Michael Nunn? Guessing they’d both beat Canelo, but I’d still like to see Canelo try.

Surprised Eddie Hearn hasn't announced a fight in this post fight conference.

Canelo responding in English like my dad talking to his manager.

He was the closest besides Saunders' corner

Hmm, Canelo suspected broken cheek.

Kinda closer than I thought, but that's boxing.

Not exactly all rounds for Canelo, but close enough.

These are the judges' scorecards, for what it's worth

Or caused it

Definitely right uppercut that connected with the injured eye

Was it that upper cut you mentioned earlier Dylan that did the damage?

So it turns out it was the corner. Canelo wins by TKO in the 8th round.

From our man on the ground:

Mauricio Sulaiman of the World Boxing Council is an amazing person. Think of how pissed Canelo was at him a few years ago. Sulaiman is now the first person congratulating him. There’s a reason the useless WBC still exists.

Ha!

pun sort of intended.

Certainly strengthens your eye test claim, Dylan

That was... anticlimactic

Not exactly a highlight ending

Oh wow. The fight has been stopped.

Bam, that's it

It's definitely not fully open

About that round, strong response by Canelo

Billy Joe Saunders' right eye looks shut.

To me, it’s not even about the resume. It’s just the eye test. There’s no way he’s even one of Mexico’s five best of all-time.

especially with how close those fights with Gennady Golovkin were.

Just watch the videos. Chavez’s fights are on YouTube. Just totally different level.

I'd agree. I'm not sure there's much Canelo can do to overtake Chavez.

I know people have been saying a lot of nice things about Alvarez’s trainer, Eddy Reynoso, but this is a massive failure on his part. Reynoso prepared Canelo to do one thing and one thing only.

Dylan, going back to your comment about Canelo overtaking Julio Cesar Chavez as the greatest Mexican boxer of all time

This tweet just hurts.

speaking of Jerry Jones, it turns out he can't pronounce the streamer where this fight is being shown.

That's probably because he finally resigned Dak Prescott

We're getting some differences in scoring. DAZN crew calls it much closer than I do.

Crowd didn't boo Jerry, Fidel

Saunders has been effective with that jab in the last few rounds

As a Cowboys fan, I am going to withhold making any comments about Jerral Jones.

That right hook hurt Saunders.

I hate to be THAT GUY, but are we still pretending this guy has any chance of being better than Chavez?

Ha!

3-2, Canelo for me, but he’s probably up 5-0 on the actual cards

Interesting.

Chris Mannix giving the lead to Billy Joe Saunders, 3-2

Truth

It's not a live event in Texas without some Selena. Pretty sure those are the rules.

Hello, Selena music to keep the crowd on its feet

Right uppercut, sorry.

I don’t like where Saunders holds his left hand and how he throws it. One-handed fighter. His left uppercut gives him some variety, though.

Tyson Fury with the bold sartorial loo

Tyson Fury with the bold sartorial looks.

Yeah Saunders definitely looks like he's settling in. Will be interesting how he approaches these middle rounds.

Saunders starting to mix up his punches to start round 4. Again, looks more comfortable. We’ll find out over the next 2 rounds how game he is.

Saunders lost that round by a wide margin, but looks as if he got more comfortable. At better range, used to the incoming fire.

So interesting comment between rounds: Eddy Reynoso predicted Canelo would knock out Saunders.

Saunders is moving backwards, but he can’t fight moving backwards. Huge difference. Canelo totally flat-footed and still walking him down. Canelo has no respect for the power of Saunders, who is throwing most of his shots off his back foot.

Has Canelo gotten new tattoos since his fight against Avni Yildirim?

Saunders more stationary than I expected. He’ll have to box to win — not the same as running. Basically, between his retreating steps, he has to plant his feet, throw a jab and continue moving. Early signs aren’t promising. Saunders’ feet are a mess.

Between the J. Balvin entrance and now the Pepe Aguilar mariachi medley, Albert has a point.

I mean, I think it'll be competitive

Who else besides Tyson Fury thinks Saunders will win?

Saunders’ legs spread wide — power stance. Harder to retreat like that.

Ha! Welcome, Dylan.

God bless boxing and its predictable tardiness. Vacationing in Central California and kids didn’t want to get out of the hotel pool.

That's not a knock, to be clear

It looks like something you can get at the swap meet

The WBC Mestizo belt?

You mean this belt?

Can we talk about the belt? It's pretty cool.

Love that story, David!

Canelo danced with the mariachis. Mexican pride, orgullo, is a super power.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-10/pepe-aguilar-jaripeo-sin-fronteras

i mean, he's not wrong. Chente > Pepe

Haha speaking of Pepe Aguilar, Albert has thoughts on this performance

As our friend Gustavo Arellano likes to say, boom!

Guess who wrote a column on Pepe Aguilar a couple of years ago?

I have to agree with the Corrales vs. Castillo fight. That 10th round might be the greatest round in boxing ever.

And staying with the Mexican theme, our friend Albert Perez has this to say on the greatest fights that took place during Cinco de Mayo weekend.

"Llorar y lloyar"

Also, this is a song about Mexico's natural beauty versus a song about JFK's daughter, Caroline Kennedy.

Full Mexican classics medley

Crowd is loving it

Oh yeah, none of those annoying "whoa oh oh!"s that aren't even part of the song

But like better

Also, "Cielito Lindo," aka the Mexican "Sweet Caroline"

I've been calling this Super Mex Saturday and this feels perfect

Wow, he's going old school

PEPE AGUILAR!

Pepe Aguilar!

It makes sense. He's going for broke.

I agree with Roberto. Saunders has leaned into the pre-fight jabs.

Another quick update from our ringside reporter Roberto José Andrade Franco:
"I'll say this about Saunders, he's perfectly suited to be the villain here. I think he actually likes it."

Interesting

Going out on a limb and saying Natanael Cano

Who do you pick, Fidel?

Course I recently joined the Times from the Orlando Sentinel, and Bad Bunny is everywhere in Florida. Little biased.

Will he go with a Mexican artist (he is in Dallas) or will it be someone else

I'm Team Bad Bunny

Last call on who you think will accompany Canelo

Maybe for Jerry Jones? They might have shown his face.

I hope she knows the boos are for Saunders flashing on the jumbo screen

Strong local choice

Oh wow. Singing the "Star-Spangled Banner" is none other than Jennifer Peña. For those of you who are unfamiliar, is (was?) a Tejano singer that was an Abraham Quintanilla protege

Definitely agree. Our betting analysis projected this one would go the distance:
https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2021-05-08/betting-analysis-will-canelo-alvarez-beat-billy-joe-saunders

I'm predicting a good fight. This one won't be easy for Canelo. Two fights in 10 weeks.

So on this Mexican anthem ... great voice + great outfit. Love the red and green flowers.

Muy excited about this one!

Hola! How is everyone?

Welcome, David!

Welcome David!

and speaking of attendance, joining us now for this chat is LA Times multiplatform editor David Carrilo Peñaloza (terrible segue, I know)

Crowd going wild for the Mexican national anthem, as expected

So, the previous highest attendance for a pandemic sporting event was the Kentucky Derby with 51,838.

Back to attendance ...

Mexican or not

Really think De La Hoya made it huge and it everyone built on that buzz

So as we mentioned, Cinco de Mayo weekend is the Super Bowl for boxing. It started with Julio Cesar Chavez, it was then adopted by Oscar De La Hoya, and now Canelo Alvarez. But as Albert points out, there have been other boxers who have used the date that aren't Mexican.

Mexicans find a way!

So Iliana, tonight we were going to have our friend Albert Perez join us but, uh, we are having technical difficulties so we've asked him to live tweet his thoughts, which we will include here.

You are correct.

If i'm not mistaken, this is the biggest crowd for a live event so far this year.

We've got an update from our friend Roberto ringside inside the very loud AT&T Stadium:

Finally, we've come to main event. But not before the national anthems and whatever other musical act accompanies Canelo. 
 
Who will accompany Canelo?
 
If he comes out alone, which song will play?
 
Who will sing the Mexican national anthem?
 
How long will all that take before fight begins?
 
One thing is for sure, this is a record crowd. Just announced: 73,126

I'm just not sold.

I'm still unsure about the whole NFT thing, but I will say this: the others I've seen have been cool (like the Foos Gone Wild One) and these are... lackluster.

oh you mean this?

Thoughts on NFTs they developed for this fight? I'm still not into it.

I hope so! That would be awesome.

Bad Bunny?

Last time Canelo Alvarez fought, it was in Miami and he came out to with J. Balvin for his intro. Who's going to be doing his walkout music this time around?

He wanted to keep dancing!

The main event hasn't started and we already have a controversy. The judge stopped the Elwin Soto vs. Katsunari Takayama fight, much to the dissapointment of Takayama.

First, Roberto José Andrade Franco, who has a book on the history of Mexican boxing publishing soon, is ringside for us at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
He'll drop some knowledge here, but you can also see live updates at this link:
https://www.latimes.com/sports/liveblog/canelo-alvarez-billy-joe-saunders-live-updates-odds-results

We've definitely treated it like one! It's been an L.A. Times swarm of Canelo Álvarez vs. Billy Joe Saunders coverage in English and Spanish. While we watch some interesting appetizers, I'm going to drop a few pre-main event links.

Hello! It really is the Super Bowl of boxing, isn't it? For some context, tonight's fight is expected to be the largest boxing even in history, with more than 70,000 fans expected at a sold out AT&T Stadium.

Welcome to the Los Angeles Times' Canelo vs. Saunders live chat. We're excited about breaking down all aspects of what feels like the Super Bowl of Mexican boxing.

Hello folks, welcome to our live chat!