Billy Joe Saunders has one foot outside the boxing ring. 

The two-division titleholder says he would have no qualms hanging up the gloves for good. It’s not hard to see why. Saunders made a career high pay day in his last fight, an eighth-round stoppage loss to Canelo Alvarez in their super middleweight unification title bout last May at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Saunders, of course, did not come out completely unscathed; he wound up with a broken orbital bone in his right eye from the fight and is still waiting for it to completely heal. 

“I’m not really worried if I box again,” Saunders told IFL TV. “Not really worried at all. If I don’t ever box again it don’t really bother me. I’ve got good people around me, I’ve invested my money well. I’m not really worried.”

Saunders (30-1, 14 KOs) says he has another medical check up for his eye at the end of the year. The 32-year-old native of Hertfordshire, England admits it is getting increasingly difficult to muster up the willpower to go into another training camp. Saunders picked up the WBO middleweight title with a victory over Andy Lee in 2015. In 2019, he earned the WBO super middleweight title with a points win over Shefat Isufi. 

“Obviously, people miss the buzz and being around the game, but I just feel sometimes when you’re in the game and you’re not getting up for certain things and you’re getting injuries occurring, it’s very hard to give your life away to camp because I have to go away for camp six, seven weeks at a time,” Saunders said. “I take myself out of comfort zones when I train. But you lose your will to do that.”  

Saunders says that at this point in his career he would only be motivated to come back to the sport for a big fight, like an Alvarez rematch. Recently, fellow Brit Chris Eubank Jr. called out Saunders to a rematch – Saunders defeated Eubank on points in 2014 – but there does not seem to be enough money in that fight to satisfy both parties. Nevertheless, he is intrigued by giving the fans one more fight. 

“There are certain fights that could get you up to do that,” Saunders said. “Obviously, I’m far away from the Canelo rematch, but I could get up to do that. Another couple of big fights. They have to be the right fights because I’m not interested in being a three-weight world champion anymore. If I’m going to go come I’ll do one more for the crowd, for the fans, entertain them, and go out on that note.”