Paulie Malignaggi is adamant that Billy Joe Saunders has the style to make Saturday night’s contest with Canelo Alvarez a tough one for the Mexican. The fight, being screened exclusively live (except in Mexico) on DAZN, pits the world’s leading super-middleweights against each other and Malignaggi, a former two-weight world champion, is a big fan of the undefeated Brit.
“He’s a little bit of a mix,” said Malignaggi when speaking to Talksport. “He’s got that crafty southpaw stance but, at the same time, he is also a guy who can give you different angles.
“Saunders makes it a bit more fun; he’s not just a touch-and-go guy, he wants to have the machismo approach to really out-slick you and also show that he is more man than you.”
With the bulk of the boxing industry predicting Saunders to use movement and footwork in his attempt to cause a seismic shock, Malignaggi believes that the 2008 Olympian will want to hurt Canelo.
“There’s something in Saunders’ personality that tells me he doesn’t want to outbox Canelo, he wants to beat up Canelo, he has that spite in him. I remember the David Lemieux fight; he doesn’t care about the fans being against him, he really impressed me in that fight.
“It tells me that Saunders has the ice in his veins to take the right approach for the fight and make it the kind of fight that he wants to.”
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