Billy Joe Saunders has been fined £15,000 by the British Boxing Board of Control for his social media video apparently giving tips about how to hit a wife or girlfriend.
The WBO super-middleweight champion appeared before the Board’s stewards in Cardiff on Wednesday to answer a misconduct charge. He gave an explanation to the stewards. But was found guilty of the charge.
Saunders, who has his licence suspended because of the charge, is now free to box again.
Saunders said the video was intended as a joke and apologised for it, but it was the latest in several bad taste social media postings he has made. In 2018, he was fined £100,000 by the BBBoC for bringing the sport into disrepute after a social media post showing him offering a woman crack cocaine in return for hitting a passer-by.
Claressa Shields, the WBA, IBF and WBO super welterweight champion, responded to Saunders’s video with a post of her own, giving tips to anyone attacked as Saunders suggested, saying they should duck and “hit them as hard as you can in the nuts”.
Saunders had been expected to be boxing Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on May, but the fight was scrapped because of the coronavirus pandemic and he refused a lower offer for the fight in September.
The fine will be donated to charities, including the Board’s charity, which gives grants to ex licence holders in need.
Ron Lewis is a senior writer for Boxing Scene. 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.
