By Dan Ambrose: Canelo Alvarez says a fight against IBF super middleweight champion Caleb ‘Sweethands’ Plant is possible for the undisputed championship after he beats Billy Joe Saunders on May 8th, but it will depend on whether the match can be negotiated.
Once WBO 168-lb champion Saunders (30-0, 14 KOs) is out of the way, Canelo says the next objective is to face Plant for the undisputed championship at super middleweight.
Alvarez (55-1-2, 37 KOs) is concerned about the possibility that Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) will ask for money that will make the fight undoable.
In that case, Canelo will be prepared to move on and look for other fights rather than give in to Plant’s demands.
Canelo hopes Plant won’t price himself out
“If he doesn’t go crazy, the fight can take place,” said Canelo to ESPN Deportes about Caleb not pricing himself out of their September fight. “It’s what I want, but sometimes they start talking nonsense.
“Hopefully the fight can take place without complications, and the fight is made. But if not, we will see,” said Canelo.
Unfortunately, Canelo has put himself in a bad position by making it known to the world that his goal is to become the undisputed champion at 168.
Plant and his handlers now know that, and they’re likely to be tougher in the negotiations than Saunders was.
With Plant and his management knowing that he’s the last man standing in the way of Alvarez accomplishing his goal of becoming the four-belt champion in the super middleweight division, they’re likely going to ask for more than what he’s comfortable paying.
As a result, Canelo will need to decide whether it’s worth it for him to pay Plant the money he’s asking for if he should move on.
You’ve got to imagine that Plant will want similar money to what Kovalev and Daniel Jacobs got because he’ll know that he holds the last piece of the puzzle that Canelo wants.
Assuming Canelo values the IBF title enough to pay Plant the money he’s asking for, the can be made. Plant may be looking to get at least $12 million for the fight with Canelo, and it might even be more.
If Canelo chooses not to give Plant the money, his options for his next fight will be from this list:
- Gennadiy Golovkin
- David Benavidez
- Demetrius Andrade
- Ryota Murata – if he doesn’t take the fight with GGG in December
- Jaime Munguia
- Chris Eubank Jr
Alvarez won’t return to the 175-lb division
What Canelo won’t do is move back up to the 175-lb division, because he felt slow when he fought in that weight class in 2019 against WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev.
But if Canelo chooses his mind, he could wind up facing Dimitry Bivol or Artur Beterbiev. Those are the fighters that Canelo should have fought in 2019 when he moved up to the weight class to go after a fourth division title.
Canelo expertly swerved those two talented 175-lb champions, preferring instead to fight the faded Kovalev, who had just gone life & death with novice Anthony Yarde only three months prior.
“168 is the most I’m going to fight now,” said Canelo about him no longer wanting to fight at 175. “We took a risk to win the fourth title, but I did feel a bit slow.
“I didn’t feel the best of me, but we already won the fourth title,” Canelo said about him capturing his fourth division title by beating the 36-year-old Sergey Kovalev in 2019.
It’s not surprising that Canelo wants no part of returning to the light heavyweight division because many boxing fans feel that he was afraid of Beterbiev and Bivol. Unlike Kovalev, those champions weren’t old and faded.