Billy Joe Saunders has placed two bets worth £70,000 on his friend Tyson Fury to beat Deontay Wilder when the pair meet in Saturday night’s WBC heavyweight title fight.
Bookmakers make Fury a marginal underdog in his third fight since his 18-month absence from the sport.
Saunders, who held the WBO middleweight title from 2015 to 2018, is set to win a profit of almost £100,000 if Fury defies the odds and beats the hard-hitting American.
The 29-year-old uploaded a video on his Instagram page of him placing £20,000 on Fury to win at 11-8 and revealed a slip that showed he had already placed £50,000 on the same outcome.
“Tyson Fury ready to rock and roll,” said Saunders. “If you win, Tyson, we’re going to give the man a good drink.”
Saunders will receive £166,250 if Fury beats Wilder, giving him a profit of over £96,000.
In October, Saunders was refused a boxing license by the Massachusetts State Athletic Commission to defend his WBO middleweight title against Demetrius Andrade after returning an adverse finding in a Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) test in August. His promoter, Frank Warren, said that the substance – the stimulant oxilofrine – was a “common decongestant nasal spray”.
Saunders was fined £100k by the British Boxing Board of Control in September for misconduct after a video was shared online in which the fighter offers a woman £150 worth of drugs to perform a sex act. Saunders apologised for the video and described it as “banter gone wrong”.
