A former world champion who shared the ring with Canelo Alvarez could be about to make a dramatic comeback to the sport.

Canelo has spent the past few years campaigning at 168lbs, where he became a two-time undisputed super-middleweight champion after overcoming a number of the other titleholders in the division.

One of those men was Billy Joe Saunders, who Canelo defeated by eighth round retirement back in May 2021 at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Saunders hasn’t competed since that date, but over five years on he has now hinted at making a return, and it seems that the current level of competition is one of the things motivating him to lace up the gloves once again.

Speaking to Talksport, Saunders explained how he believes he is still more than capable enough to defeat his rivals, even if he doesn’t fully get back to 100%.

“There is something inside me where I don’t want to retire on a loss. I’ll be very honest, I think if I’m 70% of the fighter going back to what I was, boxing ability, IQ, movement, everything else, I don’t see anything around at the minute that I look at and would worry about, but you don’t really know that until the bell goes ding.”

Saunders is a two-weight world champion, having held both the WBO middleweight and WBO super-middleweight titles, but at 36-years-old, he will likely have to make a decision soon on whether or not he does indeed plan on stepping through the ropes again.