Canelo Alvarez inflicted a devastating eye injury upon Billy Joe Saunders in front of 70,000 fans at the AT&T Stadium in Texas on Saturday night, leaving his foe being rushed to hospital. Alvarez added Saunders’ WBO super-middleweight belt to his collection, and is planning on becoming the undisputed champion.
Alvarez continued to cement his place as one of boxing’s greats by handing Saunders his first professional victory on Saturday.
The Mexican megastar, who walked to the ring accompanied by a live performance from a mariachi band, dominated the majority of the fight.
He was troubled at times by Saunders, but turned up the style in the eighth round and landed some crippling uppercuts to Saunders’ eye.
The Brit’s eye was ultimately closed almost entirely after swelling dramatically.
And when he returned to the corner at the end of the eighth, his cutman faced a mammoth task to get him ready for the next round.
However, head trainer Mark Tibbs refused to let his fighter return for the ninth round, waving off the fight while Saunders sat slumped on his stool.
Saunders was rushed to hospital with a suspected broken orbital bone, and Alvarez revealed afterwards that he knew he had dealt some serious damage to his opponent.
The pound-for-pound great said: “I told you my fight would develop after the sixth or seventh round.