Canelo hasn’t scored a stoppage win since his fight with Caleb Plant, but it was one fight earlier that the face of boxing retired a showboating opponent with an aggressive display.
Canelo is now 63-2-2 after his win over William Scull in his latest fight. Canelo vs Scull set the record for the fewest punches recorded, and disappointed fans despite being an undisputed clash featuring boxing’s biggest star.
He has won his last six fights by decision and hasn’t scored a knockout since 2021 when he became undisputed at super-middleweight for the first time against Caleb Plant.
His penultimate knockout victim, though, was a man whose eye socket and career was destroyed by Canelo in one fell swoop on this day four years ago.
Canelo fractured Billy Joe Saunders’ eye socket in world title brawl
In 2021 Canelo continued his super-middleweight campaign with a fight against undefeated Brit – Billy Joe Saunders.
Saunders famously beat Chris Eubank Jr. years ago for the British title, and also holds wins over Andy Lee, John Ryder, and David Lemieux.
A known showboater, Saunders once threw chicken at Deontay Wilder before being chased out of a restaurant in the UK.
The fight lasted eight rounds, and saw Saunders fail to come out for the ninth round after suffering a fractured eye socket in the round before.
The stoppage marked Saunders’ first loss, and last fight of his career, as he has not fought since.
Canelo was unable to knock down just two of his last six opponents
In his latest six fights Canelo has only been unable to drop two of his opponents. William Scull was the latest of the two, though before that Canelo was able to drop Edgar Berlanga in round three, Jaime Munguia in round four, Jermell Charlo in round seven, and John Ryder in round five.
The other opponent he was unable to drop came before these fights, in the finale of his trilogy with Gennady Golovkin.
Even though he was past his best and lost decisively, Golovkin retained his granite chin and never touched down to the canvas.