By Dan Ambrose: Canelo Alvarez’s promoter Eddie Hearn says they would like to take the fight with Caleb Plant on September 11th or 18th, but the Mexican star WON’T agree to a 5 or 6-fight deal to fight on PBC to make that fight happen.
Hearn says that IBF super middleweight champion Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) must decide within a week whether he wants the fight with Canelo. If not, the Canelo train will be moving on to face another champion.
In other words, Canelo won’t sign a five or six-fight deal or him to fight on PBC just so that he can get a chance to face IBF 168-lb belt-holder Plant for the undisputed championship in September.
Hearn says Plant’s adviser Al Haymon will want to use his IBF title as bait to lure Canelo into signing a long-term deal with PBC because he knows how much the Mexican star wants to get his hands on that strap.
Unfortunately, Alvarez has no interest in signing a long-term deal with any promoter or adviser.
He wants to stay a free agent, which means Plant will need to stand up and decide if he wants the fight with Canelo badly enough to make sure that his advisers aren’t going to use this fight as an opportunity to try and get Alvarez to sign a long-term deal.
That would help them, but it could ruin Plant’s chances of getting the fight.
Canelo WON’T sign a 5-fight deal to get Plant
“It doesn’t really work like that,” said Eddie Hearn to DAZN Boxing Show when told that shouldn’t Canelo tell Plant that if he wants to fight him, he must do it on DAZN.
“We all know that Al Haymon doesn’t want to give up Caleb Plant to Canelo Alvarez. Well, I’m presuming. I think that’s pretty obvious.
“If you’ve [Plant] got a belt [IBF] and a piece of that 168-lb division, really, he [Haymon] will want to use that as bait to bring Canelo in to sign a five-fight or six-fight deal because he knows how bad Canelo wants to be undisputed.
It comes down to the fighters. They trust their advisors. Maybe they’ve got a better plan. Where I’m looking at it from is there’s a huge amount of money for Caleb Plant to fight Canelo Alvarez in September, but it’s really down to him [Plant],” Hearn said.
You can’t blame Canelo for not wanting to sign a five or six-fight deal with PBC so that he can get one simple fight against Plant.
It’s not even a mega-fight. This is all about Canelo wanting to get his hands on Plant’s IBF 168-lb title so he can become the undisputed champion at super middleweight.
Other than the IBF title, Plant has nothing going for him. He’s not popular, and his lack of charisma might make it tough to get boxing and interested in this fight.
Plant is just another Billy Joe Saunders type of fighter, but he’s not popular in his home country like him, and he’s definitely not as good of a talker.
Caleb Plant must make a decision
“If he really wants to create his own legacy, if he really believes he can win, he’s got to be the guy that stands up and says, ‘No, actually, sorry. I know you’d like for me to fight [David] Benavidez instead or someone, but actually, this is my moment, and I believe I can beat Canelo Alvarez,'” said Hearn.
“That’s the only way it can happen. Listen, Al [Haymon] is a good adviser. Maybe he’s got a good plan.
“You’re using something called common sense, and that’s kind of irrelevant in this situation because it really doesn’t work in boxing.
“With Canelo Alvarez, the beauty of what he’s doing now is saying, ‘Look, I don’t want to sign a long-term deal with a promoter or a platform that could end up in a dispute, and that could prevent me from taking other fights.
“It’s a very dangerous move if you’re not a draw. I would never, and this goes back to the Devin Haney situation,” said Hearn.
“Devin Haney would want the security with a network, and that’s why he’ll re-sign with DAZN. But it’ll come to a point in your career where you look at Caleb Plant; if Caleb Plant doesn’t fight Canelo, he’s going to taking a quarter of the money to fight [David] Benavidez or someone like that.
“He could lose that fight. It really comes down to what you believe in as a fighter.
“If you believe you can beat Canelo Alvarez if you can to take that chance if you want to take that opportunity to make that money.
“I’m not saying that Caleb Plant needs to stand up. They got their plan; they’re a team. Al Haymon is a good adviser, Luis DeCubas is a great manager. They’ve got their plan,” said Hearn.
If Plant doesn’t speak up to talk to his management, it sounds like he might lose out on the Canelo fight. Hearn says that Plant’s management wants Canelo to agree to a long-term deal to agree to the fight. That’s not going to happen.
Alvarez to decide on his next opponent
‘The plan should never be, ‘We’ll only do the fight if Canelo signs a long-term deal,‘” said Hearn.
“You have to represent a fighter in this situation, and Canelo’s allegiance to a network is really irrelevant in this situation because then it’s conflicted.
“You have to do the individual job for Caleb Plant. Does Plant care if he boxes on DAZN or FOX? Probably not, really, in truth.
“He should want this opportunity. But if your Canelo Alvarez, you look at it and say, ‘September 11th or September 18th, we are eight weeks, nine weeks away, I got to make my move. I got to make my call.’
“That call will definitely be coming in the next week, and if it’s not Caleb Plant, it’ll be another champion,” said Hearn.
It might be a good idea for Hearn to start planning on matching Canelo against someone else.
If they can’t get the fight done with Plant, it’s time to move on and negotiate a deal with Artur Beterbiev, Dimitry Bivol, or David Benavidez. Those would all be bigger fights for Canelo, and he’d gain more respect from boxing fans.