CANELO ALAVREZ returns to the ring against Caleb Plant in a massive super-middleweight undisputed title fight TONIGHT.
The pair will clash at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas for the WBA, WBO, IBF, WBC and Ring Magazine titles at 168lbs, with the winner set for a bumper 2022.
- TV/Stream: BT Sport Box Office
- Start time: Midnight GMT
- Ring-walks: 4:30am GMT
Follow ALL the action with our live blog below…
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BENN BACKS…
WBA Continental Welterweight champion Conor Benn is backing Canelo to stop Plant tonight, but suggests that the American shouldn’t be underestimated.
Benn said: “You guys have been asking for my prediction and my prediction is Alvarez between 8 and 11 for a stoppage.
“But I wouldn’t write Caleb Plant off. If anyone can beat Alvarez, Plant definitely has the skillset to do so.”
Benn signed a new five-year deal with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom back in July and is 19-0 with 12 knockouts.
HEARN BACKS CANELO
“It’s a good fight. Caleb Plant is an exceptional fighter. He’s a great mover, has good fundamentals; I just don’t see him beating Canelo Alvarez. I’ve been watching boxing for 33 years live and I’ve never seen anything like him,” the Matchroom chief said.
“And I’ve watched [Floyd] Mayweather live, Mike Tyson, Prince Nassem Hamed, Joe Calzaghe, I’ve watched great Brits, Mexican fighters, I’ve watched [Manny Pacquiao], I’ve watched [Juan Manuel] Marquez – I’ve seen all these guys live and I’ve never seen anything like Canelo Alvarez.
“Plant has a chance because he’s a world class fighter. He’s a brilliant fighter, he’s always got a chance, but something has to go wrong [for Canelo[, you know what I mean?
“If you get the best Canelo Alvarez against the best Caleb Plant, Canelo Alvarez wins 10 times out of 10.”
WARD PICKS PLANT
Andre Ward has been helping Caleb Plant throughout training camp and is backing his pal to beat Canelo Alvarez tonight.
“I’m not a believer when you face a guy that’s powerful or a guy that’s supposed to have punching power you’re [supposed to] avoid him and being perfect for 12 [rounds],” he said.
“Like, I don’t believe in that. Like, I like to go rattle their cage. In fact, you gotta rattle the cage.
“What I mean by that is that sometimes you gotta [sic] go to that power and smother it.
“You gotta let them know, whoever it is, hey, you can get hurt, too.
“Caleb is a guy that has more power than they realize.
“I think he’s physically strong. I just think it’s always crazy until you do it. It’s easy for fans to choose – the easy pick is Canelo because of his history and everything he accomplished.
“But I’ll support Caleb, win, lose, or draw. But I think he has a great opportunity to go out there and shock the world. He just needs to put his mental on and make it happen.”
PLANT 🗣
Plant said: “I know only one thing better than proving people right, and that’s proving people wrong. I’ve been doing that my whole life. As soon as I stepped on the stage, people started talking about what I can’t accomplish and what I can’t do.
“Where I come from, there is no boxing community. There was no other pro I could look to and say that if he can do it, then I can do it. All I had was my mind and my heart.
“I don’t do this to be famous or to get attention. When I first started, it was just me and my dad. No one thought I’d be standing here today.”
RESPECT
Boxing legend Mike Tyson was in attendance at the weigh-in between Canelo and Plant last night.
When asked what it means to have Tyson there to watch him fight, Canelo spoke of his admiration for the youngest boxer ever to win a heavyweight title.
He said: “It means a lot, he was a great fighter, a legend. I want to be like him one day, so it means a lot.”
Tyson also posed for photos with Canelo and his daughter, who was also present at the weigh-in and matched her father in a yellow silk outfit adorned with the Mexican flag.
TALE OF THE TAPE
TIMINGS ⏰
Canelo Alvarez’s big fight with Caleb Plant will take place on Saturday, November 6 – TONIGHT!
The fight will emanate from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
There should be close to 15,000 fans in attendance at the huge event.
Canelo vs Plant will get underway in the early hours of Sunday, November 7 for fans in the UK, with ring-walks set for around 4am GMT.
MAIN CARD 📋
- Canelo Alvarez vs Caleb Plant – super-middleweight
- Anthony Dirrell vs Marcos Hernandez – super-middleweight
- Rey Vargas vs Leonardo Baez – super bantamweight
- Elvis Rodriguez vs Juan Pablo Romero – super-lightweight
THE PERFECT PUNCH
BT Sport have posted a clip on their Twitter account revisiting Canelo’s incredible sixth round KO against Amir Khan back in 2016.
Alvarez beat Khan comfortably to claim his 47th professional win and retain his WBC and The Ring middleweight titles.
The blow has been called ‘the perfect punch’ and left the Brit looking well and truly dazed on the canvas at the T-Mobile Arena, unable to continue.
The KO is a perfect example of Canelo’s danger as a ‘counterpuncher’, catching Khan with a formidable blow just as he was gearing up for a swing of his own.
CANELO 🗣
The Mexican is supremely confident this week.
Alvarez has said: “You are not on my level and you will see on November 6. You don’t want to fight now, I promise you.
“We come from nothing and we worked hard to be here. For somebody to lie and talk trash about us, that upset Eddy. It is what it is though. We just have to show everyone who we are on November 6.
“Caleb might be on the same level as Saunders and Smith, but he’s not on my level. I respect that he isn’t here to back down. You can see from today that this is definitely going to be a good fight.”
CANELO’S PLANS 🤔
Assuming Alvarez beats Plant and ends his streak with all four 168lbs belts in his grasp, the opportunities to have mega-fights from thereon would be near endless.
Alvarez is a huge star in the U.S. and Mexico and can continue to fight on pay-per-view, as a free agent, for the rest of his career, if he wanted.
If Alvarez were to stick around with PBC and Showtime for a while, a big-money fight with Jermall Charlo, the current WBC middleweight champion, would make sense.
There’s also former champion at super-middleweight and rising star David Benavidez to possibly contend with.
With DAZN, however, there’s still a potential trilogy fight with Golovkin to explore, with the Kazakh fighter still feeling begrudged about the results in their first two fights.
Otherwise Alvarez could revisit the light-heavyweight division, where’s previously been the WBO champion after beating Kovalev in 2019.
Current WBC and IBF champ Artur Beterbiev would arguably represent the toughest test of Alvarez’s career, as he boasts a menacing 100% KO ratio, the only titleholder in boxing to have that under his belt.
Or there’s WBA champion Dimitry Bivol, a route that seems the more likely, given his relationship with promoter Eddie Hearn, whom Alvarez is closely aligned with.
TITLE FIGHT NO. 19
Canelo will take part in his 19th world title fight tonight against Caleb Plant and has a very impressive record so far.
The 31-year-old Mexican has only ever lost one title fight, which was against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013.
The solitary draw came against Gennady Golovkin in 2017.
But Canelo won the rematch a year later to claim the WBA (Super), WBC, and The Ring middleweight titles.
He has since defended his belts on six occasions, most recently against Billy Joe Saunders in May this year.
HOW TO WATCH 📺
Alvarez’s clash with Plant will be shown live on BT Sport Box Office in the UK.
You can live stream the action from the BT Sport Box Office app, which is available for download onto your mobile or tablet device.
The event will set you back £19.95.
GOOD EVENING!
Hello there and welcome to SunSport’s coverage of Canelo Alvarez vs Caleb Plant – the winner of which will claim the undisputed crown in the super-middleweight division tonight.
Alvarez was last in action back in May, when he TKO’d Billy Joe Saunders in the 8th round of their title clash in Texas.
Plant has had to wait a little longer for this fight, having not fought since January, when he outpointed Caleb Truax.
The Nashville fighter won his first world title in 2019, beating Venezuelan Jose Uzcategui, and has since defended it three times.
Alvarez is on a hot streak of wins following his draw with Gennady Golovkin back in 2017.
He’s since beaten Golovkin, Rocky Fielding, Daniel Jacobs, Sergey Kovalev, Callum Smith, Avni Yildirim and Saunders, becoming a four-weight world champion in the process.
Plant’s IBF title at 168lbs represents the final piece of Alvarez’s jigsaw, which could see the Mexican crowned as his country’s first ever undisputed champion.
Alvarez and Plant had originally planned to clash back in September, but negotiations fell through before a solution was found weeks later.
The fight will be held on Showtime pay-per-view in the U.S., which will be the first time Alvarez hasn’t fought on DAZN stateside since 2018.
A win for either fighter would crown the second undisputed champion in 2021, after Josh Taylor picked up all the belts at 140lbs in his win over Jose Ramirez back in May.
So sit back and relax, we’ve got you covered this evening and all throughout the night.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
