Canelo Alvarez vs. Billy Joe Saunders predictions, odds, best bets: Top picks for super middleweight showdown

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Saul “Canelo” Alvarez takes the next step in his quest to unify all world championships at super middleweight when he steps into AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas to take on Billy Joe Saunders on Saturday night. Alvarez will be defending his WBC and WBA titles, with Saunders defending his WBO championship.

Alvarez will enter the ring as a heavy favorite to leave with three of the four recognized world titles at 168 pounds. He currently sits at -800 favorite to Saunders’ +550 underdog.

Those odds may not be appealing for those who want to wager a few dollars on the biggest fight of the weekend, especially those who see an Alvarez victory as an inevitability. With that in mind, we dug through the wide variety of prop bets offered at William Hill Sportsbook to find some of the best values available for the championship clash (8 p.m. on DAZN, sign up now).

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Best results pick

Canelo Alvarez via decision +150

Alvarez via knockout is currently sitting at +100, viewed as the most likely outcome to the fight. Saunders is a sizable underdog for a reason, but his skills should not be overlooked. At his best, Saunders is someone who boxes well and uses movement to his advantage — a big reason for the whole kerfuffle over the ring size on fight week. He also is entirely capable of making a fight kind of ugly when needed. Saunders is a capable fighter, though his skills when fighting at his “peak level” have been exaggerated by many. Saunders has also simply never fought near the level of Alvarez. All that said, while Canelo has power, he’s facing a reasonably slick southpaw, which has slightly troubled Alvarez in the past — though not to the point of suffering a defeat in those fights. Saunders is more than capable of dragging this fight out for the full 12 rounds, even if he’s far from likely to win enough of those rounds to make the fight truly competitive.

Best round prop

Canelo Alvarez rounds 7-9 +350

While Saunders is a slick, undefeated fighter, he has also been buzzed a bit in past fights and has wilted a bit down the stretch in others. To be fair, he has also had moments where he has stepped on the gas hard when needed late in fights, but against a guy like Alvarez, it’s more likely the wilting version emerges. This is less because of issues with Saunders as a fighter than with Canelo’s brilliant body work. Body work shuts down movement and Alvarez loves to do that work. While an Alvarez bomb could finish the fight at any moment, it feels more likely that a stoppage would come after early rounds where Saunders tries to use movement while Alvarez breaks him down. If the fight gets to the championship rounds, Saunders can probably hang on to the final decision, but a stoppage in rounds seven to nine, with Saunders’ damaged to the body and increasingly trapped against the ropes, feels like a live line.

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