Billy Joe Saunders undergoes surgery to repair broken eye socket, says he’ll be back

Former super middleweight titleholder Billy Joe Saunders reportedly underwent successful surgery on Sunday to repair what’s been essentially described a shattered eye socket that he suffered in his knockout loss to Canelo Alvarez the night before. Mike Coppinger reports that Saunders is resting in a hospital waiting to be cleared to return to England.

Coppinger also relayed a statement from Saunders who was thankful to all the fans who tuned in to watch the fight. Saunders says he suffered three fractures in his cheekbone to go along with the broken orbital bone but is thankful everything went well in surgery. As for the fight itself, Saunders says he didn’t feel out of his league against the Mexican star but happened to get caught with a punch that did the damage, assuring fans that he’ll be back.

It remains to be seen how Saunders (30-1, 14 KOs) will mentally rebound from his first professional loss (not to mention physically, considering his eye), but we certainly wish Saunders no longstanding injuries. That said, it’ll certainly take some time before Saunders is fit to fight again so we’ll just have to see what the super middleweight landscape is looking like when the time comes.