On May 8, 2021, the 31-year-old WBO super-middleweight champion, Billy Joe Saunders (30-0, 14 KOs), and the 30-year-old WBA (Super), WBC, and The Ring super-middleweight champion Canelo Álvarez (55-1-2, 37 KOs) met in a title-unification fight.
Saunders came in to the fight on a 30-fight win streak with a 46% KO rate, and was fighting after a gap of 5 months and 4 days. Canelo was on a 6-fight win streak with a 63% KO rate, and fighting after a layoff of 2 months and 11 days.
Billy Joe Saunders refused to continue the fight in the 8th round, and Canelo Álvarez is crowned the new WBO super-middleweight world champion. Canelo improves his record to 56-1-2 (38 KOs), while Saunders adds a loss to his record at 30-1.