Billy Joe Saunders has said he will walk away from his fight with Mexican superstar Canelo this weekend, unless the size of the ring is acceptable to him.
The WBO super-middleweight champion will need as much space as possible when he fights the number one pound-for-pound star in Miami on Saturday night but believes the ring that he will be fighting in is no bigger than a phone box.
“There’s a little bit of a hiccup today that everyone’s trying to resolve,” Saunders told White and Jordan on talkSPORT.
“I’ve left that to my management team MTK who’s over here sorting it, it’s quite a big hiccup to be honest.
“The problem is I’ve come over here and they’re trying to chuck me in a phone box of a boxing ring.
“It [the stadium] is hundreds and hundreds of feet long and they wanna stick an 16/18ft ring in the middle of it.
“For me, that’s just unacceptable. I want a 24ft ring and they’re saying it’s not gonna happen. I’ve left it to my team and I’m sure they’ll resolve it, otherwise there won’t be any fight…
“You can’t just fly me in here, show me the ring that we’re using. I’ve been training all of my camp in a 24ft ring, it’s a unification fight, not a British title.
“It’s like someone training on a 200m running track and someone training on a 400m running track, there’s a big difference.
“We all know his style of fighting, anybody who knows boxing knows how this fight – – how I’ve got in my head of it playing out. And he’s got his own style of fighting and his game plan, and I know his game plan.
“His game plan’s not waiting around, his game plan is coming to me and I want somewhere where I can move and get my boxing off.”
There’s been no word from promoter Eddie Hearn over Saunders’ claims yet but one man who voiced his support for the 31-year-old was his close friend Tyson Fury.
“You know I just got off the phone with Billy Joe,” the Gypsy King said on Instagram.
“It seems like they’re trying a lot of tricks in Texas with him.
“I just wanna say you can try all the tricks in the motherf***ing world, you ain’t gonna beat Billy Joe.
“Play fair guys, play f***ing fair now.”
