Canelo Alvarez forces Billy Joe Saunders to retire at end of eighth round

Saul  'Canelo' Alvarez showed why he is the world's best pound-for-pound boxer with his 8th round retirement victory over clever British southpaw Billy Joe Saunders. The win, Canelo's 56th, makes the Mexican Idol the WBC, WBA, and now WBO world super-middleweight champion. Only IBF titleholder Caleb Plant stands between Canelo becoming undisputed champion at 168lbs.

Saunders did his part to make the fight competitive even if he never looked like the eventual victor, but in the rounds, he won he never came close to hurting his Mexican opponent, and so, never halted the constant pressure and danger that Canelo posed to him.

Saunders will have to deal with the fallout of the events that led him to retire on his stool at the end of the 8th round, not because anyone who has ever boxed with a terrible injury will criticize him for doing so, but because he came down hard on heavyweight contender Daniel Dubois for taking a knee against Joe Joyce after he suffered the same type of injury Saunders did.

As for Canelo, he will chase down Plant and likely take his title to become undisputed.