The 31-year-old two-weight world champion Billy Joe Saunders has reportedly earned an impressive £5.5 million from his fight with Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez this past weekend.

According to the boxing insider at The Athletic Mike Coppinger, despite ultimately falling short in his 168-pound title tilt, retiring on his stool after round eight due to a serious eye injury, Saunders has earned himself a heap of cash for his efforts and is subsequently set for life.

The attendance for the fight was a remarkable 73,126 inside the AT&T Stadium in Texas, which broke the previous record for an indoor US boxing event that was set back in 1978 when Muhammad Ali beat Leon Spinks at the Louisiana Superdome.

The event was also the largest crowd at a sporting event since the pandemic began.

This record crowd witnessed Saunders suffering four breaks in the bone around the eye following a brutal uppercut, which forced his corner to throw in the towel.

Since then, however, the British super middleweight has undergone successful surgery to repair the damage done. He wrote an encouraging message on Facebook, saying: “Thanks everyone for the messages.

“Broken eye socket and broken cheekbone in three places. “(Had the) operation yesterday, all went well.

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“You win some and lose some. Didn’t feel out of my league but got caught with a good shot and couldn’t see.

“Thank you all who watched. I’ll be back, God bless you all.”

Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has already insisted that there are still big fights out there for Saunders, who became the seventh Brit to try and fail to defeat the five-time world champion Canelo.

One mentioned was a rematch with fierce rival Chris Eubank Jr, who was seen laughing at the outcome of the result this past Saturday. Probably something to do with the fact he placed 10 bags on Canelo to stop his British rival.

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This rivalry ultimately stems from their 2014 encounter, which Saunders won via split decision.

Not so long ago, however, Saunders revealed that he had actually signed to fight Eubank Jr twice before it fell through.

“I'm open to them [rematch] talks, but I've done talks with them before, I've signed contracts twice to fight and it's never ever materialised. They're very hard work to do business with.

"Maybe it can happen, but I find it very hard to work with idiots. And that's what they are."

Would you like to see a rematch between Chris Eubank Jr and Billy Joe Saunders?