Billy Joe Saunders was surprisingly honest.
As confident as the British southpaw is in his boxing ability, ring IQ and toughness, he isn’t certain he is capable of beating Canelo Alvarez on Saturday night. The unbeaten WBO super middleweight champion concedes that he’ll take an enormous step up in competition when he encounters the Mexican icon in their 12-round, 168-pound title unification fight at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Saunders has prepared properly both mentally and physically for this career-defining fight, yet he’ll have to prove even to himself that he can conquer perhaps the best boxer, pound-for-pound, in the sport.
The 31-year-old Saunders explained his situation to British journalist Gareth Davies during an “Off The Cuff” segment that debuted recently on DAZN’s website.
“When someone gets put in this spotlight, surrounded by this moment, it’s a very surreal feeling,” Saunders said. “You know? And I’ll be honest with you – I don’t really know what I’ve got. I don’t know how good I am. And that’s the truth. I don’t know. I’ve done it a million times in sparring. And I won’t mention names, but world champions and big, big names in the sport, in sparring.
“When I’ve had to do it, I’ve stood ‘em on their head. And there’s been plenty of people to witness it, plenty of people to witness it. And real, real world champions. But fighting and sparring’s a million miles apart. Little gloves, you know, different blows. So, you know, if I can put that into the fight, then it’s gonna be a different story.”
The 30-year-old Alvarez has a much more impressive resume than Saunders, who has won WBO titles in both the middleweight and super middleweight divisions. This is the fight Saunders has wanted for a long time, though, to prove he is an elite-level boxer.
Most oddsmakers have installed Alvarez (55-1-2, 37 KOs), who owns the WBA and WBC championships, as a 7-1 favorite to defeat Saunders (30-0, 14 KOs) in a main event expected to draw a crowd of nearly 70,000 to the home stadium of the Dallas Cowboys.
“Have I boxed the level of opponents of him? No,” Saunders said. “No, not the names. You look at the names [on Alvarez’s record] and look at my names, they’re a million miles apart. You know? But, you know, you have to win the moment. And this is one more about winning the moment. You have to win the moment in there with him, and make him think, ‘Whoof,’ you know, that doubt in his mind because I will honestly say that I’m gonna be one of the fights where, you know, where he has to look to find me.
“I won’t be there, with my hands in the air, laying on the ropes and laying in the middle of the ring to let him come and hit me and, you know, trading blows. And, you know, there will be some of that, but I’m looking at this – this is my night. We do what I wanna do. If you wanna change, make me. You make me change my game plan. You know, I’m in there to make him change his game plan. He’s probably in there to make me change mine as well.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.