Yahoo Finance Billy Joe Saunders has suspension lifted after pro-domestic violence video
British boxing champ Billy Joe Saunders had his suspension lifted by the British Boxing Board of Control on Thursday, four months after getting into hot water for posting a video teaching men how to assault their domestic partners.
The Board announced the decision with a quick statement saying Saunders title had been found guilty of misconduct and had fined him 15,000 pounds ($19,000) to be donated to charity.
Saunders, the WBO super middleweight champion, had originally been suspended indefinitely for the video.
Saunders recorded video teaching how to hit women
The video, posted to Saunders’ social media, was soon deleted, but preserved by other accounts.
In the video, Saunders stands by a heavy bag and gives a how-to on hitting women while isolated with them, occasionally punching the bag for effect:
“Your old woman is giving you a little bit of mouth, and you try to be patient, you try to be calm, cool. But on the seventh day, or sixth day should I say, you’re just about to explode. All of a sudden, she’s coming at you, spitting a bit of venom in your face, ready to say you ... left the dishes out. I don’t know what you’ve done, but you’ve upset her.
“So as she comes in, she’s coming at you and you’ve lost it. Just keep it safe with the hands. So as she comes in, she’s just about to say, all of a sudden you explode. Bam! On the chin. Yeah, so you hit her on the chin.
“At this time, she may flash and see what you’re thinking. ‘Wash it up, has he done it, I can’t believe this. Whoa, what’s happened?’ She don’t know what’s happened. She’s in a state of horror at the minute. She don’t know what’s going on. That flash is coming. And all of a sudden, you just get down on that knee and spring up, so you finish her off. Bam! That should do the trick.”
After a quick backlash, Saunders posted an apology decrying the video as a “very, very, very bad out of taste joke” and pledging to donate his next fight purse to a domestic violence charity.
My Sincere Apologies. pic.twitter.com/5AtmiF2tJh
— billyjoesaunders (@bjsaunders_) March 30, 2020
This is hardly the first time Saunders has gotten in trouble over a “joke.” He previously faced punishment in 2018 for videoing himself offering a homeless woman crack if she would perform a sex act or assault a bystander.
Saunders also drew ire after an audio clip circulated the week before his ill-fated video in which he could be heard laughing about getting three boxers thrown off a plane by calling the airline and saying his friend had coronavirus-like symptoms. Saunders later tweeted he had been seriously concerned about his friend and not making a prank call, despite audible giggles in his retelling of the story.
Saunders was last seen in the ring defeating Marcelo Esteban Coceres as part of the KSI vs. Logan Paul event. He had been previously slated to face Canelo Alvarez in a super middleweight unification bout, but the coronavirus pandemic threw a wrench in this plans. His next fight has yet to be announced.
More from Yahoo Sports:
