Canelo Alvarez vs. Billy Joe Saunders will be taking place this saturday night in front of a large crowd in Dallas, Texas. Canelo Alvarez has looked so good the last few years and he has kept improving to a level where he now looks very difficult to beat, especially at 168 pounds or less. The people that want to see him lose keeps insisting that he should go up to 175 again and challenge the likes of Bivol and Beterbiev but he would really be undersized against them. That is not to say that he wouldn´t beat those guys because he probably would but it would be real 50/50 fights and he would have to dig very deep against them. In Alvarez fight against Callum Smith who was at the time rated nr1 at 168 he really made Smith look so ordinary and nothing special at all. Before the Canelo fight, Smith had looked very good in the World Boxing Super Series. That is how good Canelo Alvarez is today. So at what level is Billy Joe Saunders at now and what can we expect from him? What we know is that Billy Joe has a lot of up and down performances. Sometimes he looks really good, like when he outclassed David lemieux in Canada. Othe times he struggles against not so good opposition. Canelo has not had a bad performance in man years. He is always in shape and he always looks good and sharp. We know that Canelo has a chin made of Granite and he has faced much bigger punchers than Saunders and eaten clean punches and been able to take them well each and every time. So it is not likely at all that Saunders would be able to stop Canelo. More likely than not Saunders will probably be pushed on the back foot and forced to run around to avoid Canelo´s incoming power shots. So if Saunders has a shot to win it would be if he managed to move around and pot shot for 12 rounds with Canelo and that is not an easy thing to do. Canelo can win both by knockout and by a decision because although we see Canelo having difficulties to connect with big shots cleanly on Saunders chin because of the evasive nature of Saunders. We could see how he finds the body and possibly takes him out with a left hook downstairs. Saunders has also a good chin and he will not be knocked down unless Canelo connects clean with a big punch. Then there is the possibility that Saunders hangs in there and gives a good effort but just falls short and Canelo wins a decision. (sign in to view our prediction & pick).
We dont believe that Canelo will stop Saunders and we don´t believe that Saunders can win enough rounds to earn a decision. Even if the fight is fought on even terms and Saunders looks to have won at least half the rounds, you can expect all the close rounds to go Canelo´s way. The conclusion is therefore that Canelo Alvarez wins a decision. The Pick is Canelo Alvarez to win by decision for a price of +162 (2.62 decimal odds).