Article by Rick Mohamed

Billy Joe Saunders is not going to fight Canelo Alvarez in their scheduled May 8 super middleweight unification bout due to 1 single issue…

Breaking News: WBO Super Middleweight champion Billy Joe’s father, Tom Saunders has said that the fight vs. Canelo Alvarez, the WBA/WBC super middleweight champion is OFF. He said that the reason is 1 simple but troublesome issue: the size of the ring. 

Tom Saunders continues: “We agreed to a 24 foot ring, and even went down to 22”. However, after arriving at the venue and observing that the ring was actually in fact only 18 square feet (an amateur ring size), the Saunders camp protested-loudly. 

Canelo’s camp and Matchroom head Eddie Hearn didn’t budge. Either Saunders accepts the 20 foot ring, or get on a plane and go home. The Saunders camp is apparently homebound, as a result. 

The fight hasn’t been officially cancelled, and there’s no word that says that this issue cannot be resolved, but that’s the current word from the Saunders camp. 

You may be wondering why does this seemingly very minor issue be such a major one with Saunders? 

Styles make fights. 

Billy Joe Saunders is a dancer who uses a lot of the ring to work. A larger ring works to his advantage, while a smaller one doesn’t, plain and simple. “I won’t let my son box…they said ‘It’s either 20 foot, or book your flights home”, says Tom Saunders. 

There could be a last minute renegotiation or a simple installation of a new ring that both side can agree on. Tom Saunders believes that the smaller ring “takes away Billy’s legs”, and this is untenable to the Saunders camp. 

Hopefully, this issue can be resolved, and the fight goes on as scheduled.

Historically, ring size has shown to be a factor when one of the fighters is more of a boxer than the other. For example, in the famous “Long Count Fight” on Sept. 22, 1927 at Soldier Field in Chicago, IL, U.S. A. between heavyweight champion Gene Tunney and former champion Jack Dempsey, the ring was 20 feet, which favored Tunney, who had superior footwork and used the larger ring to his advantage. 

Dempsey, on the other hand, normally fought in a 16 foot ring, where he crowded his opponents. This gave him the ability to wear them down and dominate them, for he was more of a puncher and stalker. 

Dempsey lost the fight, mainly because of when he knocked down Tunney in the 7th round, the principals were subject to a new rule that took effect for that fight: on knockdowns, a fighter would have 10 seconds to rise from a knockdown. 

The count would start ONLY after the other fighter retreated to a neutral corner. When Dempsey knocked Tunney down, he stood up and gloated for a bit. The referee wouldn’t start the count until Dempsey went to the neutral corner, which he didn’t do for 3-4 seconds. 

When Dempsey finally went to the neutral corner, he began his count. Tunney finally got up by the count of 9. 

This meant that the actual time Tunney was on the canvas was actually 13 whole seconds, though the official count was 9. In the 8th round, Tunney floored Dempsey, and this time, the count started before Tunney had reached the neutral corner. 

Dempsey got up in time, but Tunney used the larger ring to stay away and get the decision to win. Fight films, which were a new thing at the time, gave fans a chance to see the long count, and Dempsey was later greatly respected for it. 

However, it was too late for him. He retired after that fight. Tunney retired 2 fights later. A larger ring indeed does matter! I hope this gets worked out, fans. LETSGOCHAMP! 

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LETSGOCHAMPS!