Comments Thread For: Sorry, Macho Men: Team Saunders Made The Right Call

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

By Lyle Fitzsimmons - Here's a news flash, folks... I love sports. I played football, baseball and hockey to moderate success as a youngster, picked up distance running as an intermittent hobby in my 30s and have been fortunate enough to scratch out something resembling a post-college living watching and writing about athletes in action.
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[PredatorStyle]

I'm surprised anyone thought he should continue, I was watching it live and could see the damage was serious; didn't Canelo celebrating during the round give that away?

If that punch from Canelo did that to BJ's cheek, imagine what damage another of those would have done to that same area? He would be very lucky to make it out alive.

Why are British fighters bones cracking like straws? Is there something wrong in the diet, making their bones thinner or something?

[Corelone]

is Fitz crazy? First of all, BJS was right to quit, but thinking he'll be better equipped to win going forward? That's not how it works. Fitz is just as bad as the keyboard warriors, as far as fantasy goes. Saunders never was what Fitz says he's going to be.

[PunchyPotorff]

is Fitz crazy? First of all, BJS was right to quit, but thinking he'll be better equipped to win going forward? That's not how it works. Fitz is just as bad as the keyboard warriors, as far as fantasy goes. Saunders never was what Fitz says he's going to be.

Wot? Saunders is one of the best pure boxers in the biz. You can't see that?

And BTW, I don't always agree with Fitz... but here he definitely nailed it. +/- 500 boxers have died thru the years from injuries in the ring. Boxing historians easily remember tragedies like Jimmy Doyle, Benny Paret, Duk-Koo Kim (end result championship fights dropped from 15 to 12 rounds), Gerald McClellan (now requires constant care after the Benn fight caused a brain injury), with Roy Jones, Benn, Terry Norris having set up foundations to help him among other fighters), Gerardo Derbez, Greg Page.... the list is immense. Fans have to understand, when a fighters says he'll 'fight to the death', that's just hype to help promote the fight. These fighters have families, lives outside the ring, kids to support, etc. I'm all for a fighter retiring in the ring after a bad injury. Let them fight another day is the way to look at it.

[Corelone]

Wot? Saunders is one of the best pure boxers in the biz. You can't see that?

And BTW, I don't always agree with Fitz... but here he definitely nailed it. +/- 500 boxers have died thru the years from injuries in the ring. Boxing historians easily remember tragedies like Jimmy Doyle, Benny Paret, Duk-Koo Kim (end result championship fights dropped from 15 to 12 rounds), Gerald McClellan (now requires constant care after the Benn fight caused a brain injury), with Roy Jones, Benn, Terry Norris having set up foundations to help him among other fighters), Gerardo Derbez, Greg Page.... the list is immense. Fans have to understand, when a fighters says he'll 'fight to the death', that's just hype to help promote the fight. These fighters have families, lives outside the ring, kids to support, etc. I'm all for a fighter retiring in the ring after a bad injury. Let them fight another day is the way to look at it.

I said BJS was right to quit, but this is not the learning moment Fitz is talking about. Getting boxed is a learnable experience. Saunders is not going to learn how to break faces.

[thack]

Saunders was hanging in there before the injury and although Canelo was looking dangerous with his big misses there was just a thought that Saunders was finding a good rhythm and frustrating Canelo like only Floyd had.....but as great fighters do he found the shot that mattered and broke Saunders face .Canelo himself knew being an expert as to how punchers feel when they land knew that he had done serious damage and said himself 'with that kind of injury it is impossible to continue'. The warped idea of a few that it should simply don't get sport and no doubt many other things . This nonsense from a few idiots should not hide the fact that BJS put in a great skilful hard fought shift of which he and the fans should be proud unlike one so called contender (Eubank Jr) who took pride in placing a £10k bet against him , had it not been for the injury I would have thought Saunders would have done the distance but then Canelo as proved many times has the leveller. Jr will never have the bottle to try , he ran from Golovkin and forfeited £3m and left it to Brook a welter to sort it so enough of him . BJS is a great fighter but he fought the undisputed best in the world and fighters like Canelo don't come around that often , he really is a cut above.

[786]

I think everyone calling him a quitter is not saying he should've continued but rather pointing out the irony and hypocrisy of the situation following BJS's comments about Dubois. I saw Shannon Briggs saying something along the lines of, 'not saying fighters should continue with that sort of injury but they were your words Billy, not mine.'

That's what it's about, no one is being 'macho' and acting like they would've continued. In fact, the backlash should all be on BJS being a 'macho man' that didn't live up to his words when he was faced with the same adversity, not the ones pointing out the hypocrisy.

I've seen so many 'damage control' articles and interviews defending BJS's actions and ****ting on the people who are highlighting what he said following the Dubois-Joyce fight....come to think of it did Dubois get this much support from the media? Were there this many articles about 'macho men' and 'keyboard warriors' when he pulled out of the Joyce fight? I might be wrong but I seem to remember that he was labelled a 'quitter' and people accepted it, it wasn't just BJS who called him a quitter, I remember Froch and I think Bellew also sharing similar sentiments.

So, my thing is, **** feeling sorry for Billy, he made those comments and he's going to have to live with it. All these clowns doing damage control for billy, need to apologise to Dubois first, say they (and billy) got it completely wrong but now they understand.

[1hourRun]

Sissy-Boy talked about flatlining

[pollywog]

Saunders is always gonna be that guy.

The guy that lost his 0 and had his face caved in by Canelo.

That's his legacy now. Live with it!

it's better then dying in the ring and that's what may have happened if he continued...

[Sweet Scions]

Fitzsimmons' cruelty is almost without bounds. A thinly veiled roast of 80% of NSB couched within an affirmational piece on choosing the ability to hug your kids going forward over satiating the irrational machismo demands of dorks on the internet