By Dan Ambrose: IBF super middleweight champion Caleb ‘Sweethands’ Plant is hard at work, already training hard for his still unsigned unification fight against WBA/WBC/WBO 168-lb champion Canelo Alvarez for November.
Plant will get a $10 million payday that will effectively set him up for life if the fight gets done. With that kind of money, it doesn’t matter if Plant’s career goes downhill after his November match with Canelo.
Plant, 28, is back in the picture for Canelo’s next fight, and he’s making sure that he’s not caught off guard by the Mexican star waiting until four weeks before the fight to let him know that he wants him next.
Canelo (56-0-2, 38 KOs) recently changed his mind about wanting to move up to 175 to challenge WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol, and he’s now restarting talks to face Plant.
But instead of fighting Plant on September 18th, as he had previously wanted to do, he’s looking to do the fight in November. Until the fight with Canelo is officially done, you can’t rule out him losing interest and choosing to go off in another direction.
Hopkins: Canelo to stop Plant in five rounds
“Canelo can fight anybody and will always step his game up like he’s fighting somebody,” said Bernard Hopkins to Little Giant Boxing on Alvarez’s fight against Plant in November.
“Don’t go to the refrigerator for any kind of deserts,” Hopkins said when asked what happens with Canelo vs. Caleb Plant fight. “Canelo in five rounds. He breaks him [Plant] down. If it lasts more than five rounds, I will apologize to the people viewing this interview.
“Right now, Canelo wears the banner of ‘King of Boxing’ and also his performance in cementing his legacy. Every time I watch Canelo, I get more impressed. Fight after fight; he’s getting better.
“For future opponents, it’s dangerous, but it’s also good for the fans, for his legacy, and it’s good for boxing,” said Hopkins.
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If Plant doesn’t gas out as he did against Jose Uzcategui in 2019, he’s got a decent chance of beating Canelo. Plant has got the size, jab, movement, and boxing skills to defeat Canelo by a decision and make him look bad.
Watching a faded over-the-hill WBO super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders win rounds against Canelo last May showed that the Mexican star isn’t unbeatable at 168 or 175. If Saunders had fought a smarter fight and if he’d been a little bit younger, he might have beaten Canelo.
Plant is fighting at a higher level than Saunders now, and he’s not going to make the same silly mistakes of standing in front of Canelo, leaning forward the way Billy Joe did.
Winning a decision against Canelo obviously could prove to be difficult for Plant to do, but if he makes him look bad the way Gennadiy Golovkin did in their first fight, he’ll earn a rematch.