Middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders has had his boxing licence suspended by the British Boxing Board of Control.
The BBBofC confirmed they had suspended Saunders after he released a video that showed men how to beat their girlfriends during the coronavirus pandemic.
Saunders has since apologised for the video, while his Promoter Eddie Hearn slammed his fighter for the comments.
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In the video Saunders shows men how to ‘hit her on the chin’ when a woman speaks back to you, demonstrating on a punch bag.
A statement from the Board read: ‘The British Boxing Board of Control having considered comments made by Billy Joe Saunders on social media have suspended the boxer’s licence pending a hearing under the Board’s misconduct regulation, at a time and venue to be confirmed as soon as possible.’
WBO super-middleweight champion Saunders now faces another hefty fine after previously falling foul of the Board’s expectations and risks having his licence stripped completely.
The 30-year-old was fined £100,000 in September 2018 after a video emerged of him asking a woman to perform a sex act on him for £150 worth of drugs.
‘I looked at it as a bit of a joke at first, I obviously wasn’t thinking right, but looking back at it now I can clearly see the destruction it has caused among the women suffering from domestic violence.
‘It was a silly mistake, but I didn’t intentionally mean to cause harm to anyone and I certainly wouldn’t promote domestic violence.’
‘But I also didn’t mean for anyone to get intentionally upset about it,’ Saunders continued.
‘There are people dying all around the world with coronavirus and I tried to take the heat off that a little bit by cheering everybody up, but it clearly hasn’t done it.
‘My sense of humour is not everyone’s cup of tea.
‘I can only take it back and apologise for it; I’ve spoken to my manager and among other things I will be donating £25,000 to support domestic violence charities.
‘It is clearly a silly thing to do and I can’t take it back.’
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