ARLINGTON, Texas – The man who inflicted the damage to Billy Joe Saunders’ face Saturday night knows it would’ve been too dangerous for him to answer the bell for the ninth round.

Saunders drew some criticism from DAZN’s announcers and fans on social media in the immediate aftermath of his technical knockout loss to Canelo Alvarez because the outspoken southpaw didn’t protest the decision by his trainer, Mark Tibbs, to stop their fight after the eighth round. Alvarez believes Tibbs had no other choice but to not send Saunders out for the ninth round of their 12-round, 168-pound unification fight at AT&T Stadium.

The victorious Alvarez knew right away what was confirmed at a nearby hospital early Sunday morning, that Saunders suffered a fractured right eye socket in the eighth round.

Mexico’s Alvarez sensed as soon as he saw the swelling beneath Saunders’ right eye that his right uppercut had fractured Saunders’ right orbital bone. He told his trainer, Eddy Reynoso, once he returned to his own corner that he didn’t think Saunders would come out of his corner for the ninth round.

For all the animosity between them before their fight, Alvarez understood Tibbs’ decision to stop what had been a reasonably competitive fight to spare Saunders more damage. Saunders informed Tibbs that he couldn’t see out of his right eye before Tibbs told referee Mark Calo-oy to stop their fight.

“It’s hard because I saw when he broke his cheekbone, I went back to the corner and I told Eddy that I didn’t think he can continue,” Alvarez said during the post-fight press conference. “When you break your cheekbone, you can risk your life and you can’t continue that way.”

Eddie Hearn, Saunders’ promoter, confirmed on social media Sunday afternoon that Saunders sustained “multiple fractures to the orbital area” around his right eye and had surgery Sunday. The former WBO middleweight and super middleweight champion is expected to return from Dallas to his home in England on Wednesday.

The 31-year-old Saunders (31-1, 14 KOs) was behind on all three scorecards when their fight was stopped. Judge Tim Cheatham scored three of the eight rounds for Saunders (77-75), but Max De Luca (78-74) and Glenn Feldman (78-74) both scored six of the eight rounds for Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 KOs), who defended his WBA and WBC 168-pound championships and won the WBO belt from Saunders.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.