Billy Joe Saunders confident of beating Canelo Alvarez ‘as long as I get treated fairly’

Briton previously complained about the size of the ring, and he made another sly dig at the organisation of the bout at Thursday’s press conference

Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (left) faces off with Billy Joe Saunders (Matchroom Boxing via YouTube)

Billy Joe Saunders has expressed his confidence in beating Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez on Saturday, “as long as I’m treated fairly”.

The Briton takes on the Mexican superstar in Texas’ AT&T Stadium in a main-event meeting on Saturday night, with 70,000 fans expected to be in attendance.

Saunders, who enters the bout with an undefeated record of 30-0 (14 KOs), is bidding to hand Canelo Alvarez just his second career defeat – following a 2013 points loss to Floyd Mayweather.

At Thursday’s pre-fight press conference, Saunders said he is confident of achieving that goal – but the southpaw made a sly dig at the organisation of the bout.

Having already threatened to withdraw from the fight due to complaints about the size of the ring – an issue that Saunders says has now been resolved – Saunders mentioned the judges involved in Saturday’s main event.

“He’s done brilliant things for boxing, you know, he’s a good champion,” Saunders said of Canelo.

“But there’s a time in life when you get tested. I just think that he’s gonna be bumping into the wrong man on Saturday night to be going home with those titles.

“As long as I get treated fairly. Very happy with the panel of judges, very experienced, I’m sure it’s all gonna be fair. I’m looking forward to a very good fight but most definitely the win.

“It’s not about fame, not about publicity, not about anything else, [it’s about] winning. And I don’t think we’ve had somebody come to win for a very, very long time.

“We’ve had a lot of people turn up, fly in, collect cheques and fly out, but we haven’t had the heart, soul and IQ that I’ll bring to the table and ring on Saturday night.”