A tawdry week in Texas ends with a world title fight – and Billy Joe Saunders may pay for making Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez angry
“I have no regrets whatsoever,” Billy Joe Saunders said defiantly a few weeks ago as he began to beat the drum for his world title unification fight against the formidable Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez in front of an expected crowd of 60,000 in Arlington, Texas on Saturday night. “I never regret anything – otherwise I wouldn’t do it.”
Saunders spoke in typically fiery fashion after he was asked if he felt any remorse for some of his antics over the years. A small selection could start with Saunders being an unrepentant and very loud supporter of Daniel Kinahan, his mentor, who is exiled in Dubai. This year a BBC Panorama investigation into Kinahan’s continued involvement in boxing insisted that the Irish courts “have accepted that the Kinahan Organised Crime Group is involved in drug trafficking, money laundering and gangland executions”. Saunders led the backlash against the BBC and also appeared to taunt Barry McGuigan, who spoke out against Kinahan, over the death of the former world champion’s daughter from cancer.
Related: Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez: ‘This is the reality of my life. No boxing, no life’