Can Plant beat Canelo using Mayweather blueprint?

By Boxing News - 11/02/2021 - Comments

By Allan Fox:  Caleb Plant is expected to follow Floyd Mayweather Jr’s blueprint to try and defeat heavy favorite Canelo Alvarez this Saturday night on November 6th in their 168lb undisputed fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

In the last seven years since Mayweather created the blueprint for defeating Canelo, it’s only been followed once in a disciplined manner to great success by Erislandy Lara in 2014.

The Cuban talent did almost as well as Mayweather, but lacking Floyd’s popularity, Lara was given a controversial 12 round split decision loss against Canelo.

Despite the loss, the blueprint did work for Lara, considering got the better of Canelo in that fight regardless of the poor judging.

Plant should know that he doesn’t have the firepower to stand and trade with the heavy-handed, counter-punching Canelo (56-1-2, 38 KOs). If Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) does fight Canelo’s fight, he likely won’t last long.

Can Plant follow the Mayweather blueprint?

What makes it even more critical that Plant follows the Mayweather blueprint to the letter is the cut he sustained under his right eye during the press conference with Canelo last September.

Canelo tagged Plant with a right-hand shot, resulting in the cut. It’s now been two months since the incident, and you can still see the scar under Plant’s right eye.

Unfortunately for Plant, that scar tissue is likely to open up as soon as Canelo starts hitting him with shots on November 6th, and it’ll be a race against time once that happens.

Image: Can Plant beat Canelo using Mayweather blueprint?

“Canelo is a tremendous fighter, and Caleb Plant is a tremendous fighter. I’d like to see what kind of mindset Caleb Plant is going to come in for that fight, and I think it’s going to be a big fight,” said Edgar Berlanga to Fight Hub TV.

“I think Caleb Plant is going to do what he does best and try and box him, use his jab, stick & move like Floyd [Mayweather Jr.] did and [Erislandy] Lara did  [against Canelo]. He’s going to try and use that same game plan to try and frustrate Canelo, but it’s going to be a big fight,”  said Berlanga.

Plant isn’t even-tempered, and his tendency to be easily angered could work against him when it comes to staying locked in following the Mayweather blueprint.

During Plant’s interviews, he always seems on edge, hyper-vigilant for any signs of slight. That same hyper-alert attitude that Plant has during interviews is there during his fights because he tries to retaliate with a shot each time he’s hit.

Instead of keeping his head and being tactical, Plant goes after his opponents to pay them back. He’s gotten away with that fighting style up until now because his opposition has been lackluster his entire seven-year professional career.

When you’re fighting marginal opposition like Mike Lee, Vincent Feigenbutz, and 38-year-old Caleb Truax, you can afford to be undisciplined like Plant.

Canelo must perform poorly for Plant to win

“You got to make him [Canelo] respect your power because if you’re punching off movement and you’re not really connecting with good shots, Canelo is the type of fighter if you’re not throwing your shots, he’s just going to walk you down, and he’s going to beat you up.

“With Plant, he’s going to have to sit down a couple of times and let him know, ‘I’m here, and besides the boxing thing, I can also punch too,'” said Berlanga in giving the key to victory for Caleb Plant over against Canelo.

“Caleb Plant is an exceptional fighter, he’s a great mover, has great fundamentals, but I just don’t see him beating Canelo Alvarez,” said promoter  Eddie Hearn.

“I’ve been watching boxing for 33 years live, and I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve watched Mayweather fight, heavyweight greats, Mike Tyson, I’ve watched Naseem Hamed, I’ve watched Joe Calzaghe, I’ve watched Pacquiao, Marquez, and I’ve watched all these people live. I’ve never seen anything like Canelo Alvarez.

“I give him [Plant] a chance because he’s a world-class fighter.  He’s a brilliant fighter, so he’s got a chance, but something has got to go wrong. Canelo has got to perform badly, prepare badly, and maybe have some problems outside of the ring, something,” said Hearn.

Canelo isn’t likely to perform poorly enough for an undisciplined hot-heated angry fighter like Plant to beat him. What makes Canelo so great is the way he stays calm when things are going badly for him.

Plant too angry for his own good

He doesn’t get hopping mad when his opponents have a bit of success and plays it like a chess match. Canelo bides his time and looks for the perfect shot to win the rounds and cause damage to his opponents. In contrast, Plant seems to get angry when his opponents land, and he immediately wants to fire back at them to get even.

We saw some of that anger during the kick-off press conference last  September. Instead of keeping his head after Canelo shoved him, Plant chose to pay him back by throwing a left-hook slap.

That was the wrong thing for Plant because he was unprepared for combat with his sunglasses on. He was reacting with anger rather than thinking things through clearly on what might happen if he attacked Canelo.

We saw Canelo’s mind working with him taking his sunglasses off, knowing that it wouldn’t be a good idea to wear those in case Plant got violent.

“If you get the best Canelo Alvarez and the best Caleb Plant, Canelo wins ten times out of ten,”  said Hearn. “But if you get an underperformance and you get a ten out of ten Caleb Plant, or you get a bad camp or an injury or something, that’s what I believe it’s going to take for him [Canelo] to lose,” said Hearn.

We haven’t seen Plant put in the kind of performance during his career that would suggest that he can beat a talented fighter like Canelo.

This fight is going to play out just like their press conference last September, with Plant losing his head early, and swinging wildly, and leaving himself open to being countered by Canelo.