By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez faces Caleb Plant on November 6th in the small obstacle before he’s crowned undisputed super middleweight champion in the division. Canelo can make no more excuses once he finishes his journey to become the undisputed champ at 168.
Let’s face it; Canelo has had a convenient excuse for why he didn’t need to fight the talented fighters that could potentially beat him repeatedly.
Canelo has had easy fighting the soft paper champions at 168 since 2018, defeating these easy marks: Rocky Fielding, Billy Joe Saunders, and Callum Smith. Although those 3 were technically champions, they were arguably the paper variety and not true champions in Sean Jones’ view.
Is Canelo ready for the murderer’s row?
Once Canelo is forced to face the bitter reality of facing the talented guys at 160, 168, and 175, we could see him facing the same retirement question as Manny Pacquiao.
If WBA/WBC/WBO 168-lb champion Canelo (56-1-2, 38 KOs) defeats IBF belt-holder Plant (21-0, 12 KOs), boxing fans are going to expect the Mexican star to finally start fighting the talented guys that he’s been sidestepping for the past three years.
The murderer’s row for Canelo:
- David Benavidez
- Jermall Charlo
- David Morrell Jr
- Artur Beterbiev
- Dmitry Bivol
- Joe Smith Jr.
- Gennady Golovkin
- Demetrius Andrade
This is a fight that will end Canelo’s three-year period in which he’s had an excuse for why he doesn’t need to face David Benavidez, Jermall Charlo, or Gennadiy Golovkin.
After Canelo makes easy work of the light-hitting Plant, he’s going to have to finally get to the hard work of fighting the guys that have an excellent chance of beating him over and over again.
I guess that Canelo will continue to put off fighting the dangerous murderers row fighters for a little while longer after he defeats Plant, saying that he must make a mandatory defense against his WBO #1 challenger Zach Parker.
But after Canelo defeats Parker, he’ll likely vacate all or some of his titles once the World Boxing Council orders him to defend against Benavidez.
Although Benavidez still has yet to cement himself in as the WBC mandatory by facing Jose Uzcategui in a title eliminator, it’s a given that David will win that fight flying colors.
As I was saying, Canelo will probably choose to vacate all or some of his 168-lb titles once the WBC orders him to fight Benavidez because he won’t want that fight.
“I’m not an A-B-C, 1,2,3 fighter. I’m not a fighter who has been undisciplined to the sport where I got to come down from 200 pounds and my mental fortitude,” said Plant on Saturday on why he’ll beat Canelo.
“A lot of those guys don’t have the same mental fortitude. They lost the fight before the bell even rings,” said Plant.
No one really takes Plant seriously as a threat to Canelo because he can’t punch, has hand problems, and has absolutely zero experience against A-level opposition during his seven-year professional career.
In my view, Plant would never be a champion at 168 if he had to face David Morrell Jr, Benavidez, or Carlos Gongora. Those guys would be a pure nightmare for Plant, and he would have been exposed. Plant almost lost to Uzcategui, which tells you how limited he is as a fighter.