Canelo is the reigning P4P king, at the peak of his powers and will have a crowd of around 70,000 right behind him at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas (live globally on DAZN).
Billy Joe is a 9/2 underdog with Sky Bet while Canelo is a 1/7 favourite. The bases are loaded against Saunders on Cinco de Mayo weekend, but he is a brilliantly talented boxer and utterly fearless.
The 31-year-old from Hertfordshire (30-0) has been on the road before, and produced the goods. Remember that boxing masterclass against David Lemieux in the Canadian’s back yard in 2017?
But that was Lemieux, this is Canelo, a very very different proposition. Saunders though, believes he has the brain and skillset to execute the perfect plan.
Billy Joe on gameplan
“This fight is all about the brain. Not about power, muscle or skill, it’s the brain and the game plan, and being able to execute that game plan.
“I brush opinions off because I know what goes through my head and my mind, and what I have done in my career is through the will and want to win, and the day I lose that, I won’t put a pair of gloves on again.
“I can only control what I am in control of and that myself, not what is outside the ring. It’s going to be a great fight - it’s one I’ve wanted for years and it’s finally landed.
Much at stake
“There’s a lot at stake for both of us. Would I like my fans there? Yes. Would I like UK media there? Yes. If the fight was moved to the Mexican border I wouldn’t care.
Fight week in Texas has already brought its fair share of drama, with Saunders and his team threatening to fly home due to an argument over the size of the ring.
That has all now been resolved and we are good to go for the biggest fight of 2021 so far. Saunders, as he showed during a tense face-off with Canelo on Wednesday, is fazed by nothing and ready for anything.
“I have my own way of approaching the fight and Canelo will have too, he’s done this nearly 60 times,” he said.
“I’ll get in there as the best that I can be and that’s all I can control.
“I’ve been the underdog before, I’ve been the away fighter before, it’s not a new position, but I’m just in with a better opponent this time.
“If I go in there and I win, I’m not going to run and say never again, I’ll fight him again, I’ll fight anyone, anywhere, it doesn’t bother me. It’s good for boxing sometimes when the underdogs come through, and I don’t just mean me here, because it puts the sport on a higher platform to be watched.
“I’m at the top of the tree where I’ve done it all as an amateur, I’ve had 30 fights, I’m unbeaten, won every title coming through, two-weight World champion - I can sit back at night and say I’m top of the pile fighting the pound-for-pound king.”
While Saunders will not have the normal backing of his travelling UK fans with COVID-19 travel restrictions hitting hard, he will have world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury at ringside.
Fury arrived in Dallas on Wednesday, also full of confidence that Billy Joe will upset the odds to add Canelo’s WBC, WBA and Ring magazine super-middleweight titles to his own WBO strap.
There is also speculation we could get a Fury vs Joshua announcement regarding the date and venue for that superfight on Saturday night with Eddie Hearn teasing the potential to do the big reveal in the ring.
