Billy Joe Saunders couldn't back up his talk against Canelo Alvarez, says Gabriel Rosado

Rosado once completed a fight against David Lemieux despite suffering a detached retina in the third round that left him - for the fight - unable to see out of one eye.

Saunders incurred a series of broken orbital bones against Canelo Alvarez on Saturday night and was prevented from coming out to contest the ninth round by his corner, after previously mocking Daniel Dubois for taking a knee with a similar injury.

The 35-year-old Rosado believes that Saunders had been on the back foot throughout.

“Once I saw the tactics he was doing like not showing at the press conference or making the whole thing for the ring, I thought, ‘Ah he’s shook,’” he told the DAZN Boxing Show.

“He tried to flip the script and get in Canelo’s head.

“How can you get in Canelo’s head when he’s been fighting on the big stage for years - and it was weird he was trying to do that. This ain't’ new to Canelo. I felt he was using those tactics to get himself going. I felt like, ‘Ah right, Canelo’s got him.’”

Rosado recalled his own injury, and suggested that Saunders was not as tough as he told everyone.

“It happened to me in the third round,” he said.

“Everybody’s different. My injury was worse, my injury was not just a broken orbital bone, I had a detached retina. 

“I was blind - I knew something was wrong because I couldn't see. Everytime I went to my corner I was like, ‘I can’t see.’ 

“But I fought through it, I was gutting it out. Because I was like I could win the fight. If you notice I came back stronger in the fourth round because my attitude was, ‘I can’t let him know that I’m hurt. But not everybody’s built like that. 

“Billy Joe Saunders talked a good game,  but when he’s hurt ,you're going to find out what someone’s really made of in adversity. He talked the talk but he didn’t back it up.”