Canelo Alvarez was able to defeat Billy Joe Saunders by eighth round TKO this evening in Arlington to unify three super-middleweight titles.

Alvarez entered tonight’s contest holding the WBA and WBC titles, while Saunders laid claim to the WBO strap.

Canelo Alvarez (56-1-2) was returning to action for the first time since February, where he had needed just three rounds to defeat Avni Yildirim.

Meanwhile, Billy Joe Saunders had entered tonight’s highly anticipated middleweight showdown sporting a perfect professional record of 30-0. The British standout had most previously competed in December of 2020 where he earned a unanimous decision win over Martin Murray to defend his WBO title for a third time.

Tonight’s Canelo Alvarez vs. Billy Joe Saunders fight proved to be a highly entertaining back and forth affair. The Mexican champion was able to find early success but ‘BJS’ stormed back in rounds five and six. Then, in round eight, Canelo was able to land a number of big shots, including a uppercut which appeared to damage the eye of Saunders.

The fight was ultimately called off between rounds eight and nine, this after Billy Joe Saunders told officials he could no longer see out of his right eye.

While the British standout clearly found some success against Canelo this evening, it was not enough for him to be ahead on the scorecards.

As seen below, all three of the judges scoring tonight’s Canelo vs. Saunders fight had the contest in favor of Alvarez after eight rounds of action (78-74 x2, 77-75).

https://twitter.com/DAZNBoxing/status/1391243086400000001

Following tonight’s impressive performance Canelo Alvarez called out current 168lbs IBF champion Caleb Plant to be his next opponent.

Canelo’s lone career defeat had occurred way back in September of 2013 when he was outpointed by Floyd Mayweather. He has since gone 14-0-1.