By Sean Jones: Caleb Plant is vowing to fight Canelo Alvarez tooth & nail on November 6th, and he won’t be quitting on the night. IBF super middleweight champion Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) sounds like he’s ready to fight to his last breath against Canelo (56-1-2, 38 KOs), and he’s going to get his pound of flesh in the process.
If Canelo, 31, thinks he’s getting another pushover like the paper champions he’s beaten in the last three years, he’s got another thing coming. We could see Canelo taste defeat for the first time in eight years on November 6th.
Canelo can lose
Interestingly, the last time Canelo lost was against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013, and he’s a fighter that Plant is similar to with his style of fighting.
Of course, if you want to count Canelo’s controversial decision victories over Erislandy Lara and Gennadiy Golovkin, it’s been three years since he lost a fight.
That’s probably a more accurate way of looking at this fight. Canelo has lost, but being the A-side and fighting in his favorite city of Las Vegas, he was given the victories.
Plant is determined to win
“On November 6th, there’s going to be no quit in me, and before the final belt, they’re going to see the man that I am,” said Caleb Plant to Fighthype. “Determined,” said Plant when asked what word best describes him going into the Canelo fight. “I’m locked in.”
You hear the emotion in Plant’s void when he talks about there being “no quit” in him that he’s going out there looking to damage Canelo.
Plant might be the most intelligent out of all the fighters Canelo has fought in the last decade. Listening to him and his dad Richie talk, they’ve studied Canelo, and they see weakness.
This writer sees weakness too in Canelo in watching his six fights. He’s slowed down and developed a lot of bad habits in which he loads up on shots.
Canelo’s work rate is roughly one-half of what it used to be when he was younger, and he’s been able to get away with that due to the match-making and questionable decisions given to him in Vegas.
Alvarez has wisely chosen not to fight Golovkin again, and he’s stayed far away from David Benavidez, who would likely beat the brakes off him now.
Although Canelo talks of wanting to fight IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev, he doesn’t back up his words. He talks without doing, hiding behind his goal of becoming the undisputed 168-lb champion.
Plant’s dad sounds like a scientist with he talks about the game plan they have to dismantle Canelo, and it’s hard not to believe they can win.
Canelo’s last opponent Billy Joe Saunders quit on his stool, and his opponents before that, Avni Yildirim and Callum Smith, essentially gave up by not fighting back.
Canelo brings no mysteries
“I don’t think it did. He was in the beast mode from the beginning,” said Caleb’s dad Richie Plant to Fighthype.
“You look at an opponent in how your style matches up to his, and we feel comfortable,” said Richie about his belief that Plant’s style will do well against Canelo’s style.
“There’s not a lot of mysteries with Canelo. He’s going to do what he’s going to do. You see it, and it’s very consistent from fight to fight.
“It’s not like when you put together a game plan, you’ve got a pretty good idea what’s going to happen.
“He [Canelo] hits hard, but that’s not the biggest concern. Not for us. We have a plan, and that’s our biggest concern. Following that plan from the start of the fight until the end of the fight.
“This is the pinnacle,” said Richie Plant about Caleb’s massive fight against Canelo. “Not only is it the pinnacle of our situation, but it’s the pinnacle of the sport when you can become undisputed.
“There’s only been a handful of five or six. When you can be in that kind of an elite group, it proves to you that you were right. This is what you set out for. This is your destination when you begin this process,” said Richie Plant.
You know what you’re going to get with Canelo because he’s a slower version of how he’s always fought.
He calls it the Eddy Reynoso style, but in reality, it’s what Canelo has learned from watching different fighters like Mayweather. Reynoso is no zen master teacher. He’s just a regular trainer that lucked out to have Canelo join his gym many years ago.
