By Matt Lieberman: A wild-eyed, highly agitated Caleb Plant weighed in at 167 pounds on Friday at the weigh-in for his undisputed fight against superstar Canelo Alvarez for Saturday’s headliner on SHOWTIME PPV at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. A more relaxed-looking Canelo (56-1-2, 38 KOs) weighed in at 168 lbs and looked in great shape.
(Photo credit: Amanda Westcott/SHOWTIME)
Showtime ensured plenty of security on the stage during the face-off between Plant and Canelo so that they could avoid another mishap, as we saw in the kickoff press conference last September.
IBF super middleweight champion Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) seemed worked up emotionally during the face-off with Canelo, especially when he was interviewed afterward by Showtime’s Jim Gray.
While being booed the whole time, Plant looked unbalanced and was disturbed by the crowd, and had a weird look in his eyes.
This writer has never seen a fighter with that kind of appearance at a weigh-in before. Hopefully, Plant can get control over his emotions on Saturday night because he’s not going to last long against Canelo if he’s not thinking clearly inside the ring. Also, we don’t need the fight to turn into a kicking, biting, or scratching affair.
“Absolutely,” said Plant when asked if he likes to be the underdog for the Canelo fight. “You can cheer for him all you want, and you can boo for me all you want. Remember, it’s easy to sit in those seats. It ain’t easy to stand up here, remember that,” said an angry-looking Plant.
“Come on; this is what I do. I was born for this,” said Plant when asked if he was nervous. “This is my destiny.”
Plant’s talk of “destiny” is another oddity about his belief in going into the contest. If he believes it’s his “destiny” to win, you got to wonder how he’ll react if he loses the battle.
Will be able to come to terms with what’s happened to him or start denying reality, saying he was robbed, and begin with the conspiracy stuff we sometimes hear from defeated fighters.
Naturally, Canelo is a huge favorite going into Saturday’s fight because he’s the more experienced guy, and he looked far more talented. Plant has only faced one semi-decent opponent in his career against Jose Uzcategui, and he struggled in winning that fight.
The Canelo vs. Plant fight winner will be the undisputed 168-lb champion, and that’s something that both guys value. Canelo will move on, try and set up a big fight with a top 168-pounder or possibly move up to 175 to take on one of the champions.
As for Plant, he hasn’t said what he plans on doing if he wins. He’s kept things close to the vest about what he’ll do should he beat Canelo. A rematch would be something that Plant would explore, as he’ll make more money fighting Canelo a second time than he would by facing someone else.
Other weigh-in results:
Anthony Dirrell 168.5 vs. Marcos Hernandez 168.5
Rey Vargas 125 vs. Leonardo Baez 126.5
Elvis Rodriguez 142 vs. Pivi Romero 143
Rances Barthalemy 143 vs Gustavo Vitorri 143
Jose Gomez 131 vs Jose Antonio Meza 132
Jan Salvatierra 113 vs Fernando Diaz 114
Joselito Velasquez 114 vs Gilberto Mendoza 114