11 May 2021

The end of Saturday night’s bout at Super Middleweight between #1-ranked Canelo Alvarez and #6-ranked Billy Joe Saunders was both sudden and startling. Was Saunders’ left-handed, mobile style beginning to take over or was Canelo simply biding his time to conclude matters whenever he felt like it? The right uppercut that caught Saunders as he was ducking was a fight-finisher. He told his corner he was blind on that side and no fighter this side of Harry Greb should be expected to fight on with that kind of injury. Saunders suffered a quadripod fracture to his orbital bone, and it could mean the end of his career.

Saunders was initially proposed to drop to #9, but the membership saluted his performance and his activity and settled on #8. We don’t expect to see him back in the ring for at least another year or more, however.

Canelo confirms himself as the #1 P4P fighter in the world and #1 in the division. We urge him to face #2-ranked Caleb Plant. The winner of that becomes the rightful, actual, and singular king of the division.       

****We hope you are impressed with our new website. Please let us know in the Feedback tab. Special thanks to one of our founding members and Tech Stewart Howe, who devotes his valuable time and considerable skill to this reform-minded initiative free of charge. Back in the summer of 2012, Howe’s love for boxing moved him to join the initiative out of the gate. Without him, we wouldn’t have made it past the gate. We’d still be trying to climb that gate.

A resounding thank you to Stewart and to all of our fans and followers who see what he sees –boxing’s need for identifiable and singular divisional champions and rankings that aren’t compromised by competing interests. ***