It is too late to teach Billy Joe Saunders how to behave on social media, according to Eddie Hearn, who does not believe that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will be put off facing him by his online reputation.
Saunders is expected to face Canelo on May 8, a year after they were supposed to originally meet. The fight could be confirmed on February 27, the night Canelo defends his WBC and WBA super-middleweight titles against Anvi Yildirim in Miami.
But the prospect of preparing for that fight has not kept Saunders off social media as he has repeatedly defended his adviser, Daniel Kinahan, while attacked Barry McGuigan, calling him a rat, for appearing in a BBC Panorama documentary about Kinahan.
Previously he has been in trouble for a series of videos posted online, one getting a woman to hit a passer-by in return for an offer of drugs, another apparently giving tips on how to punch a girlfriend.
“Billy should just delete social media really,” Hearn, his promoter, said. “It’s difficult because I think sometimes, and he’s brought a lot of it on himself, he’s portrayed a certain way. That doesn’t help him.
“He also finds it difficult to express his feelings and what he means when he’s trying to justify himself. When something happens and he tries to explain it and it gets worse and you’re like, ‘Ah, Billy, just leave it’. Ultimately, all being well Billy Joe Saunders is fighting Canelo Alvarez in one of the biggest fights of the year and the rest is over to him.
“I can’t babysit him. That’s it. That’s it for him. He either becomes a legend of British boxing that night or loses his world championship. The stage of me holding his hand and trying to guide him through how to behave on social media and how not to behave has gone. It’s too far for that now. Not because of his reputation but it’s too late in the day to change Billy Joe Saunders. He is what he is.
“He’s an outstanding fighter so let’s see how outstanding he is. On May 8, we’ll find that out. I just want to see him fight. I hate negativity. Some you bring on yourself. Everyone is trying to shoot down boxing at the moment. So get off social media and train for the moment of your life, moment of your career. That’s what he’s good at. You’ve got to concentrate on what you’re good at.”
Hearn will be promoting the February 27 and May 8 dates, but he does not believe that Canelo will be bothered by any of Saunders’s antics.
“We’re too close to it sometime,” Hearn said. “I don’t think Canelo Alvarez knows anything that’s gone on with Billy Joe Saunders. All he’s thinking is he wants his belt and he’s one of the top two super-middleweights in the world, so he wants to fight him.
“That for me, along with AJ against Fury, is fight of the year. So let’s get it made. Let’s get Billy Joe Saunders doing what he’s good at, which is fight.”
Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.
