Canelo Alvarez vs. Caleb Plant PPV undercard announced for Nov.6th

By Boxing News - 10/18/2021 - Comments

By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez vs. Caleb Plant pay-per-view undercard was announced on Monday for their November 6th card at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.

As Mike Coppinger points out, with the vast $50 million guaranteed purses going to Canelo (56-1-2, 38 KOs) and Plant (21-0, 12 KOs), there wasn’t much money left for the undercard.

Canelo will bring in PPV buys just with his name alone without the need for a quality undercard.

But for the sake of the boxing fans, they want to see quality undercard fights. They want to pay $75 for only one battle, particularly when it’s viewed as a slam-dunk win for Canelo.

If Canelo faced David Benavidez, Artur Beterbiev, Jermall Charlo, or Gennadiy Golovkin, the undercard wouldn’t be necessary because those would be great fights.

But we’re talking Caleb Plant, a fighter that struggled against Jose Uzcategui and was lucky not to have been knocked out.

It reminds this writer of when Floyd Mayweather Jr. fought Manny Pacquiao in 2015. It was a huge event, but the undercard was a skeleton crew of mismatches and almost all prospect fighting.

All the money for the card was slanted to the headliner fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather.

Image: Canelo Alvarez vs. Caleb Plant PPV undercard announced for Nov.6th

They have been better off if they took all the undercard purses and put it into one good fight so that the boxing fans would have something interesting to see.

Unfortunately, the event organizers have skimped on the undercard, revealing that 37-year-old Anthony Dirrell (33-2-2, 24 KOs) will be facing Marcos Hernandez (15-4-2, 3 Kos) in the co-feature bout. Hernandez’s record since 2019: 2-3-1.

Canelo vs. Plant undercard:

  • Andre Dirrell vs. Marcos Hernandez
  • Rey Vargas vs. Leonardo Baez
  • Elvis Rodríguez vs. Juan Pablo Romero

Dirrell is a former two-time WBC super middleweight champion who hasn’t won a fight in 2 1/2 years since his 10 round technical decision victory over Avani Yildirim in February 2019.

He did NOT look good against Yildirim, struggling in the second half of the contest. Hence, Yildirim kept his high ranking despite the loss.

In Dirrell’s two fights since then, he was knocked out in the ninth round by David Benavidez in September 2019 and then fought to a 12 round draw against Kyrone Davis (16-2-1, 6 KOs) last February.

Hopefully, for the sake of the paying boxing fans, the main event between WBA/WBC/WBO 168-lb champion Canelo and IBF champ Plant lives up to the billing.

The fans will want to get their money’s worth, and they’re not getting it from the undercard fights, not unless they’re huge fans of Dirrell, Rey Vargas, and Elvis Rodriguez.  Those are not great fighters.