By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez already made it known last weekend that his hope is to face IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant for the 168-lb undisputed championship to try and make history. Blah, blah, blah.
The casual boxing fans want Canelo to fight Gennadiy Golovkin a third time rather than face the light-hitting finesse fighter Caleb Plant, who is little more than a Billy Jose Saunders 2.0 in this writer’s estimation. Another mismatch for Canelo against a finesse fighter with zero power.
While it’s nice that Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 KOs) by becoming the first person to unify the 168-lb weight class, the fact of the matter is the boxing world doesn’t care about this minor status symbol that the Mexican star is trying to accomplish.
Why is Canelo trying to the 168-lb division?
Canelo is the only one that cares about his mission to unify the 168-lb division, and some believe that he’s just doing this as an excuse to dodge the talented fighters that could potentially beat him.
As I’ve mentioned before, Canelo’s decision to try and unify the super middleweight division is just a foxhole for him to hide in to avoid the talented fighters. With the terribly poor champions that have held titles at 168 during Canelo’s mission to unify the division, it’s given him sure-thing wins without risk.
Canelo’s wins over second-rate champions Billy Joe Saunders, Callum Smith, and Rocky Fielding is little more than a calculated decision on his part to dodge the best.
Canelo has NOT been giving fans the fights they want to see. On the contrary, he’s been shoving subpar fights down the throats of fans in the same way Floyd Mayweather Jr has been feeding mismatches to fans over the years.
By Canelo using up valuable time beating flawed champions like Billy Joe Saunders, Caleb Plant, and Callum Smith, it’s protected Alvarez from having to fight these guys that could give him pure trouble:
- David Benavidez
- Jermall Charlo
- Demetrius Andrade
- Gennadiy Golovkin
Unifying the super middleweight division isn’t something that boxing fans will give Canelo credit for in the way that Hank Aaron received credit for breaking Babe Ruth’s 714 homerun mark in MLB in 1974.
This feather that Canelo is trying to stick in his head has completely gone over the heads of the average fans, who oblivious to this feat that Canelo is trying to accomplish.
As such, Canelo fighting another unpopular paper champion like Plant (21-0, 12 KOs), with his weak resume, is without value. It’s just more of a superficial goal for Alvarez, padding his record by going after a weak champion in 28-year-old Plant
In other words, fans don’t view unifying the 168-lb division as a big deal, particularly given the mediocre champions.
Caleb Plant eager to fight Canelo
“Hopefully, we can fight in September and give the fans what they want,” Plant said ESPN Deportes.
“It would be a historic night that will leave us as the first undisputed champion in the history of the super middleweights and do you know who it will be? Caleb Plant.”
The fans don’t actually want to see Canelo fight Plant. So if that fight is made, Canelo won’t be giving the fans what they want to see. Canelo-Plant is essentially a repeat of Canelo’s last fight against the weak-punching Billy Joe Saunders.
Plant is arguably America’s version of the 31-year-old Saunders but slightly younger at 28. There’s no major difference between the two, which is why it’s a waste of a fight for Canelo.
If Canelo and Plant were serious about giving the fans what they want to see, they would make these fights:
- Plant vs. David Benavidez, Jermall Charlo, Gennady Golovkin, Edgar Berlanga, Demetrius and Dimitry Bivol
- Canelo vs. Benavidez, Golovkin, Charlo, Artur Beterbiev, Bivol and Demetrius Andrade
If Canelo can’t negotiate the fight with Plant for September, he at least has Golovkin as a Plan-B option for him. Boxing fans want to see Canelo fight GGG a heck of a lot more than they do Plant.
That’s why it’s going to be difficult for Canelo to put the fight with Plant together for September because Caleb and his management at Premier Boxing Champions [PBC] could overplay their hand.
Fans want Canelo to fight the best
With Plant’s lack of popularity and lack of options, he’s not in the position to negotiate anything. He’s negotiating from the point of weakness for a fight with Canelo.
If Plant were willing to take on dangerous guys like David Benavidez, Charlo, Andrade, Beterbiev, Bivol, or Golovkin, it would give him a better position to negotiate with Canelo.
Plant would never fight any of those guys because he’d likely lose to all of them. So unless is Canelo is willing to give up his A-side position, a fight with Plant has very little chance of happening.
Plant and his PBC management will want the fight to be on FOX rather than DAZN. I don’t think that’s going to fly because it would take a risk on Canelo’s part to agree to fight Plant on FOX pay-per-view for a match that might not sell many PPV buys.
Canelo vs. Golovkin or Charlo would be a PPV fight that would sell in the U.S, but you can’t say the same for a Canelo-Plant fight. That’s basically Canelo vs. Saunders 2.0.