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Boxing

Billy Joe Saunders had no idea until he suffered his own injury, says Joshua Buatsi

Alexander Netherton
Billy Joe Saunders had no idea until he suffered his own injury, says Joshua BuatsiDAZN
The light heavyweight went through his own injury problem in the ring.

Joshua Buatsi has said that no fighter knows how they will react to an eye injury until they suffer it themselves.

The 28-year-old light heavyweight has until recently been in America preparing for this fight with Daniel Dos Santos, shown on DAZN on May 15.

Buatsi discussed the recent fight between Canelo Alvarez and Billy Joe Saunders, which saw Saunders stopped between the eighth and ninth round when his corner refused to let him continue. He has since undergone surgery for broken orbital bones.

Buatsi also said that Saunders failed to properly test the Mexican.

Speaking to the DAZN Boxing Show, Buatsi said: “If there’s anyone who’s going to trouble Canelo, it’s going to be Billy Joe with the style that he’s got. 

“But as we saw, Canelo has operated at this level for years now so he knew how to handle it and I think the fight was stopped, he handled business.

“When I got in there and my eye went in the third round, I said on my stool, ‘Someone’s going to quit tonight and it’s not going to be me.’ I don’t have that option but people handle it different.”

The Briton then suggested that Saunders’ team were right not to risk their fighter taking part further.

“I feel like we’ve seen a lot of fighters take a loss because of that, I can’t comment on how bad theirs was, I can only talk about mine,” he explained.

“The vision was limited, but I decided when it happened, this is not ideal but regardless I’m going to win. When it’s all said and done, losing your eye over boxing is not worth it.”