What’s the deal with all this Canelo ring size drama ahead of Billy Joe Saunders fight?
By Josh Hill
Is Canelo vs Saunders canceled, and what’s the deal with how that rumor got started?
Boxing is in a very interesting period of its history.
Gone are the glorious golden years of heavyweight bouts dominating headlines, replaced with cash-grab PPVs featuring YouTubers fighting amateur boxers.
What’s particularly painful to boxing fans is the fact that such a ridiculous replacement formula is actually producing results. While the reputation of boxing is flat on the mat and reaching for the ropes, its relevancy has spiked thanks to the shameless cannibalization by the Jake and Logan Paul’s of the world.
Boxing indeed has culture currency, but it’s less its weight in gold and more crypto fugazi.
Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Deontae Wilder and other legitimate boxers are still active and still fighting with much interest. But while it’s fight week for one of the best boxers alive, Canelo Alvarez, the biggest boating story was Jake Paul stealing Floyd Mayweather’s hat at an event hyping the latter’s upcoming fight with Logan Paul.
Lost in that madness was a very interesting and frankly bizarre rumor that this weekend’s fight between Alvarez and Englishman Billy Joe Saunders was not going to happen.
Is Canelo vs Saunders canceled?
Simply put, no the fight is not canceled and it will happen as scheduled.
The genesis of this rumor stems back to earlier in fight week, when Saunders’ father Tom claimed the fight would be cancelled at the last minute. The reason for the cancellation was said to be Billy Joe’s opposition to the size of the ring he’d be fighting in.
“At the end of the day, I’m not gonna let my son box in a 20ft ring [against] supposed to be the pound-for-pound king of boxing,” Saunders said.
For what it’s worth, this wasn’t a rumor that Tom Saunders cooked up out of nowhere. Billy Joe has been on record as saying he wants to fight in something bigger than ‘a phone box of a boxing ring’.
“For me, that’s just unacceptable. I want a 24’ ring and they’re saying it’s not gonna happen and it is what it is. But I’ve left it to my team and I’m sure they’ll solve it — otherwise there won’t be any fight,” Saunders told TalkSports.
According to Saunders, the ring size directly clashes with what he was under the impression he’d be fighting in. He noted that his team had been training in a 24’ ring and not the smaller size that the fight will reportedly take place in.
“You can’t just fly me in here and show me the ring that we’re using and I’ve been training all of my camp in a 24’ ring. It’s a unification fight, not a British title. It’s like someone training on the 200m running track and someone training on the 400m running track — there’s a big difference.”
Tom Saunders even went as far as to apologize to fans through the press who were expecting a fight, saying the team was booking its flight back to England.
Those comments came two days before Alvarez and Saunders showed up for weigh-ins, which sung a very different tune about whether there was any doubt the bout would happen.
https://twitter.com/daznboxing/status/1390041803475324929?s=21
Saunders has legitimate reason to be upset about the size of the boxing ring, as it significantly hinders his mobile style of fighting. But the complains and dramatic theatrics of saying the fight was cancelled due to the ring size seems like posturing that Team Saunders will lean on if the fight ends up not going their way on Saturday.