By Sean Jones: Eddie Hearn says he thinks Canelo Alvarez can’t be beaten at 168 or 175 at the moment because of his huge talent. Canelo still hasn’t proven he’s the #1 fighter in the 168-lb division because he has IBF champion Caleb Plant he needed to fight before becoming the undisputed champ.
Likely, Hearn, Matchroom, and Canelo’s loyal fans will then claim that he’s the #1 guy in the super middleweight division if he beats Plant (21-0, 12 KOs).
But if the fans want to be technical about it, they’ll say that Canelo (56-1-2, 38 KOs) still needs to defeat David Benavidez, David Morrell, and Carlos Gongora for him to be the true #1.
Canelo has only fought these 168-pounders since moving up to super middleweight:
- Callum Smith
- Billy Joe Saunders
- Rocky Fielding
Hearn says no one beats Canelo at 168 or 175
“That fight should be happening. Caleb Plant is a great champion. He’s going to get a great payday,” said Hearn to Fighthub on the Canelo vs. Plant fight.
“He’s also going to get a chance to great a great legacy for himself. So I guess he wants the fight.
“I think Canelo is unbeatable. I don’t see anyone at 168 beating him,” Hearn continued. “He may not get beat at 175 like you know, cruiserweight, I don’t know. In his head, he is completely unbeatable,” Hearn said.
There’s an outstanding possibility that David Benavidez would beat Canelo at 168, particularly if he wants two to five years before he finally faces him. The 24-year-old Benavidez has time on his side.
As such, the longer Canelo puts off fighting Benavidez, the better it’ll help him. Even now, Benavidez would be a problem for Canelo due to his size, work rate, and excellent stamina.
We saw Canelo losing rounds and looking tired in his last fight against Billy Joe Saunders on May 8th.
Benavidez would take advantage of Canelo’s stamina by working him hard and maybe even stopping him. The fact that Canelo hasn’t fought Benavidez yet indicates that he wants no part of him.
At 175, Canelo is not a sure thing against Artur Beterbiev, Dimitry Bivol, and Gilberto Ramirez. Those are 50-50 fights for Canelo. With fair judging, Canelo could lose to some or even all of those fighters.
Negotiations to start for Canelo vs. Plant
“Well, sit down with Luis DeCubas and Al Haymon with PBC, and say, ‘What’s the opportunities for the fighters?’ Then we’ll look at the numbers, and hopefully, it’s the right fight for September.
“One thing about Caleb Plant is he’s a world champion, and it’s an undisputed fight, and, of course, he’s going to want a lot of money to fight Canelo Alvarez. We lost one undisputed fight, and we shouldn’t lose this one. It’s a natural fight to make.
“We’re not going to say, ‘It must happen on DAZN,” said Hearn about the Canelo vs. Plant fight.
“What we do have is a lot of money to do it on DAZN because they’ve done the Callum Smith unification, the Callum Smith unification, and they’d like to do the undisputed fight as well.
So they’ll want to be very aggressive with the numbers to try and make it happen,” said Hearn.
It will cost Canelo and DAZN a pretty penny to get his hands on the IBF title in Caleb Plant’s possession.
Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) has already set the price for him to fight Canelo by saying he wants $10 million minimum, and you got to believe he’s expecting to get in the neighborhood of $15 million for the fight.
Really, it comes down to how much does Canelo value the IBF title because that’s the only thing Plant, 28, has going for him.
He’s not popular or well known, and his fighting style is potentially tricky for Canelo. Plant is like a bigger version of Devin Haney.
Demetrius Andrade’s chances not good for Canelo fight
“The chance for [Demetrius] Andrade was when he [Canelo] was at middleweight, and he wanted the belt,” said Hearn. “Now we know he moved up to super middleweight.
“If I’m looking at the career of Canelo Alvarez, he wants to be undisputed. So a fight with Demetrius Andrade would effectively be a voluntary defense of his belt.
“I don’t think he rules that fight out, but I think he’s saying, ‘I want to fight the champions.’ If he was at middleweight, I think Canelo would take that fight.
“But he’s not crying out for a big fight with Demetrius Andrade. It could be Chris Eubank Jr next.
“We’ve made a big offer for him. That’s a good fight, maybe in the UK as well,” said Hearn about a possible fight between Andrade and Eubank Jr.
For Demetrius Andrade to have any chance of getting a future fight with Canelo, it’ll require that he move up to 168.
It’s unlikely that Canelo will entertain the idea of facing Andrade unless he moved up to 168 and established himself in that division first.
Given the problems that Andrade had in his last title defense at 160 against Liam Williams, he’s better off staying at 160, forgetting about Canelo.
