By Sean Jones: Eddie Hearn’s deadline for IBF 168-lb champion Caleb Plant and his management at PBC ends this Sunday, July 18th, to get the Canelo Alvarez fight negotiated for September. Plant, 28, will be out of luck and miss out on his dreams of a $10 million payday against Alvarez.
There are rumors that PBC is offering Canelo a three-fight deal for $100 million. If true, that’s an offer that would be difficult to turn down for Canelo, especially if it opens the door for him to fight Jermall Charlo, Plant, and David Benavidez.
Charlo is the fight that Canelo wants. If Canelo likely won’t agree to the three-fight deal if it means he has to fight the former two-time WBC 168-lb champion Benavidez (24-0, 21 KOs). Benavidez is a different story, which might be the deal killer. He’s too dangerous for Canelo.
According to the Matchroom Boxing CEO Heard, Canelo will move up to 175 to challenge Artur Beterbiev or Dimitry Bivol for their world titles.
We don’t know if Hearn was blowing smoke, using Beterbiev and Bivol as names to get Plant & PBC to agree to the deal that Canelo wants.
Knowing how careful Canelo is when selecting his opposition, it isn’t easy to take what Hearn says seriously about him, using Beterbiev & Bivol as his Plan-B options.
Canelo hasn’t faced a real threat that could beat him since his rematch with Gennadiy Golovkin in 2018. Since that fight, Canelo has arguably been cherry-picking against these flawed fighters:
- Sergey Kovalev
- Daniel Jacobs
- Rocky Fielding
- Callum Smith
- Avni Yildirim
- Billy Joe Saunders
When you look at the weak group of fighters that Canelo has been fighting for the last three years, it doesn’t look realistic that he would agree to fight Beterbiev (16-0, 16 KOs) or Bivol (18-0, 11 KOs).
Caleb Plant’s deadline is up on Sunday
Hearn said earlier this week that if the fight with Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) isn’t negotiated by the end of this week [Sunday], he WON’T be fighting WBA/WBC/WBO super middleweight champion Canelo (56-1-2, 38 KOs) in September.
“If that fight [Canelo vs. Plant] isn’t made this week [by Sunday, July 18th], that fight won’t happen in September,” said Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing to DAZN.
“The reason why we talk about Bivol and Beterbiev is because that’s who he’s going to fight if he [Canelo] doesn’t fight Caleb Plant.
“We are running low on time now. That’s what they [Premier Boxing Champions] would prefer.
“They would prefer to do a three-fight deal [with Canelo] to fight on their network in exchange for them letting him fight Plant].
“This is their opportunity to try and allure him to the network,” said Matchroom head honcho Hearn.
Since Plant is a gimme for Canelo and gives him an excuse to fight another over-matched weak 168-lb champion, Hearn will probably extend the deadline to Caleb and PBC.
Alvarez has no choice but to fight Plant
Look at it this way. If Canelo walks away from the negotiations with Plant, he’ll have to fight someone really good. Hearn has obviously mentioned Bivol and Beterbiev, neither of which likely has any real chance of fighting Canelo.
The Mexican star isn’t stupid. Canelo knows what’ll happen if he fights Beterbiev or Bivol, which is why he Kovalev when he moved up to 175 to fight for a world title in 2019.
Canelo could have easily fought Beterbiev or Bivol, but he chose the over-the-hill 36-year-old Kovalev. That says it all. Alvarez didn’t want that smoke, and he still doesn’t want it.
So, if Canelo walks away from the Caleb Plant fight, the boxing public will demand that he fights one of those guys:
- David Benavidez
- Artur Beterbiev
- Dimitry Bivol
- Jermell Charlo
- Demetrius Andrade
- Gennadiy Golovkin
It won’t work if Canelo cherry-picks Errol Spence Jr or finds another obscure champion to fight. The boxing public has watched Canelo take on soft jobs for three years since his controversial win over Golovkin in 2018, and they want to see him fight a live body.