Alvarez added the WBO super middleweight crown to his WBA and WBC titles as the Mexican forced Saunders to quit on his stool after the eighth round in front of 73,000 fans at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

Alvarez landed a vicious uppercut which rocked Saunders and sealed his right eye shut, forcing the Brits’ team to call off the contest as their man was rushed to hospital with a suspected broken orbital bone.

The defeat came after a bitter build-up to the fight during which Saunders threatened to back out over a row involving the ring size and taunted his Mexican rival as well as members of the foreign press.

Many claimed that Saunders got his just deserts inside the ring at the destructive hands of Alvarez, while others accused him of lacking the heart to fight on despite the disturbing damage to his eye. 

One person to question the stoppage was Bridges, who suffered a gruesome eye injury of her own during her WBA women’s bantamweight title fight to Shannon Courtenay back in April, but battled through to complete all 10 rounds.

“Don’t tell me he stopped cos of his eye......,” questioned Bridges on Twitter, before screaming “BJS was in that fight!!”