By Dan Ambrose: Canelo Alvarez’s trainer Eddy Reynoso posted on social media on Monday night about “good news” coming in an apparent hint that his next fight will be announced soon.
Fans believe there will be an announcement possibly this week of Canelo facing IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant on September 18th.
In a signal that Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) could be next for the Mexican star, Canelo posted on social media on Monday saying he’s “back in training,’ and Caleb came back with the comment: “Been in training.”
For Plant to post that message, it’s clear to some boxing fans that he’ll be facing Alvarez next in September.
While WBA/WBC/WBO super middleweight champion Canelo’s trainer Reynoso might view his fight with Plant as “good news,” many boxing fans are less than excited about this fight.
They view Plant as another Billy Joe Saunders type of boring finesse level fighter, a guy that jabs a lot and runs around the ring.
Plant has little power, and he was hurt badly in the toughest fight against Jose Uzcategui in January 2019.
good news is yet to come
👊🏼🇲🇽👊🏼#teamcanelo— EDDY REYNOSO (@CANELOTEAM) July 12, 2021
Hearn reveals Canelo – Plant deadline this week
“It’s definitely our Plan-A to fight Caleb Plant,” said Eddie Hearn to DAZN Boxing Show. “We’ve made their team an offer. As I’ve said all along, Al [Haymon], their side, would want to do the fight on FOX.
“Our offer is to do the fight on DAZN. I think if that fight isn’t made this week, it won’t be happening in September.
“The reason we talk about [Dimitry] Bivol and [Artur] Beterbiev is because that’s who he’s going to fight if he doesn’t fight Caleb Plant. So we’ve made the message quite simple to those guys [Team Plant], which is, ‘we want an offer.
“If you want to do the fight on FOX, we want an offer to do the fight, just that fight, on FOX, and that will be considered.’ We have no problem doing that, but we are running low on time now.
“While Canelo is knocking in birdies and winning every golf tournament in America, sooner or later he’s going to go back into camp in San Diego and say, ‘Alright, who am I fighting?’
“We’ll say, ‘This is where we’re up to for this, and these are the options that are ready to go,'” said Hearn about trying to make a deal for the Alvarez vs. Caleb Plant fight.
Caleb needs to agree to the offer given to him by Matchroom Boxing and Canelo by this week if he wants the fight.
Interestingly, Hearn hasn’t mentioned anything about Plant pricing himself out of the fight by asking for over $10 million, which is what he’s rumored to want for the fight.
If money isn’t an issue, perhaps it will come down to which network the Canelo vs. Plant fight will be shown.
Plant’s management wants a 3-fight deal for Canelo
“When we talk about boundaries and restrictions to make a fight, the whole point of Canelo’s free network agency status is to be able to make fights like this,” said Hearn.
“Yet still, ‘here’s a three-fight deal.’ No, no, no. We can make the fight there. Just give us an offer for that fight and then.
“That’s what they [Team Caleb Plant] would prefer. They would prefer to do a three-fight obviously with Canelo Alvarez,” said Hearn in making it clear that Plant’s management wants Canelo to agree to a three-fight deal with FOX in exchange for them letting him fight Caleb.
“This is their opportunity to try and allure him [Canelo] to the network if you like by the Caleb Plant fight. But I feel Caleb Plant shouldn’t be a pawn in this.
“Caleb Plant is a guy that should get the best deal and the best opportunity for this fight, but unfortunately, that’s boxing,” Hearn said.
It’s hard to imagine Canelo agreeing to a three-fight deal in which he is stuck fighting on FOX for his next three matches just so that he can get the fight with Plant.
If Canelo wasn’t a huge star and Plant was a bigger name, you could see something like this happening. But it sounds crazy to imagine Canelo agreeing to fight on FOX for his next three contests in exchange for getting a fight against Plant, who many boxing fans see as a paper champion.
Caleb Plant wouldn’t be viewed as a paper champion at 168 if he’d beaten some quality fighters during his career, such as David Benavidez, David Morrell, or Carlos Gongora.
Plant’s best career wins:
- Jose Uzcategui
- Caleb Truax
- Rogelio Medina
- Vincent Feigenbutz
- Mike Lee
Those are fighters that guys like Morrell, Gongora, and Benavidez would destroy without any trouble. Given Plant’s weak career resume, it’s difficult not to view him as a paper champion because he’s never faced a quality fighter that showed that he deserves to be a world title-holder in the true sense.
Canelo could make a quick decision
“We’ll see where it goes,” Hearn continued about Canelo vs. Plant talks. “As I said, this week is crunch week. We have to make a decision this week.
“September, most likely the 18th, is upon us, and we have two or three other fights ready to go. We could abort Caleb Plant and announce tomorrow.
“That’s the fight we’re taking, but we want to give him [Canelo] every opportunity to succeed because he does want to become undisputed.
“So, he’s back, the golf is done, and he’s back focusing on the fight, and he’ll want to make some quick decisions himself.
“And to be fair to Saul, he’s a guy that makes quick decisions. These last three weeks, myself and Eddy Reynoso have been working on all the options.
“But he will come back and say, ‘Let’s do that.’ And he will either say, ‘Let’s keep pushing on Caleb Plant, or they don’t want that right now, let’s do this, and we’ll revisit in December.’
“The tremendous thing he has right now is momentum and the fact that he’s boxing so frequently,” said Hearn.
As I said, the posting on social media by Canelo, Plant, and Reynoso on Monday suggests that the Canelo-Plant fight will be happening in September.
It’s good in a way that it’s happening now because Canelo isn’t going to give up on this fight. He values becoming undisputed champion at 168. So even if the fight with Plant doesn’t happen in September, it’ll happen in December.
Boxing fans want to see Canelo move on and start fighting high-level fighters like Benavidez, Charlo, Beterbiev, Andrade, and Bivol.
Canelo has wasted the last couple of years of his career with his goal of becoming undisputed champion at 168, fighting weak champions in that division.
Fans didn’t want to see Canelo fight Callum Smith, Rocky Fielding, or Billy Joe Saunders, as those were paper champions.
Likewise, fans have little interest in seeing Canelo fight Plant, who failed to accept a challenge from Benavidez when he called him out.