Billy Joe Saunders withdraws from October 22nd title defense with hand injury

Billy Joe Saunders has not had a good year.

The WBO Middleweight Champion, who has not fought since winning said title from Andy Lee last December, recently suffered a hand injury while preparing for an October 22nd defense against Russia’s Artur Akavov. The entire Cardiff card has thus been pushed to November 26th, as British super welterweight titlist Liam Williams was likewise forced from his title defense with a sparring injury.

The card was originally headlined by Chris Eubank Jr., who vacated his British belt due to injury and left prospective foe Tommy Langford to face Sam Sheedy for the strap.

This is the second time this year that Saunders (23-0, 12 KO) has been forced from a crap title defense with a hurt hand, as he was scheduled to face Max Bursak earlier this year before bowing out. He’s spent the rest of his time turning down a massive payday to face Gennady Golovkin, refusing to fight a trio of American middleweights with a guaranteed shot at Canelo as a prize, and calling Dan Rafael a pedophile while claiming that the American middleweights he discarded in favor of Akavov were all terrible.

Would it be fair to call him the Boris Johnson of middleweight titleholders at this point?