Canelo Alvarez and Caleb Plant are reportedly nearing a deal for an undisputed 168-lb clash in November on PBC on FOX PPV. ESPN is reporting the Canelo-Plant fight negotiations are going well for a big fight three months from now.
This will be the second time the two champions have agreed to a deal, as they had a fight close to being done recently for September 18th. Unfortunately, the negotiations fell apart over one of the deal points.
After the negotiations collapsed, Canelo attempted to put a fight together with WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol for the September 18th date, but he eventually abandoned those efforts because there wasn’t enough time to train.
That was a fight that Canelo would have needed as much time as possible to prepare for Bivol, who is arguably a more advanced fighter than Plant.
If the Canelo-Plant fight gets made, Canelo will be looking to capture the final title, not in his grasp at 168. Once Alvarez picks up the IBF belt, he’ll have finished unifying the super middleweight division.
Canelo can then either make defenses of his four titles or move up to 175 to challenge the champions Bivol, Artur Beterbiev, and Joe Smith Jr.
Canelo wants Plant fight
“Let’s just delay this to late October, early November,” said Eddie Hearn to DAZN on what Canelo’s trainer/manager Eddy Reynoso told him in putting the brakes on a September 18th fight with Dmitry Bivol.
“They do want to fight Caleb Plant. That is what they want at the end of the day,” Hearn continued. “Dmitry Bivol is there, he accepted the fight, he’s ready to fight, but the ultimate goal for Canelo is to be undisputed at 168 lbs.
“So they’ll [Canelo] reignite that and see what Al Haymon says for seconds. No, it’s never easy. I saw some of Caleb Plant’s comments on social media. That doesn’t help.
“So, we’ll plan for late October or early November to be back in the ring. He’s [Canelo] always ready. Demetrius [Andrade] is at 160 lbs, and one thing Canelo likes to do is fight champions. If he can’t get Plant, he’ll want to fight another champion.
“If there’s no more in his division, he’ll want to go up and fight Bivol,” Hearn said of Canelo. “He loves the [Artur] Beterbiev fight as well. That is the most brutal fight.
“I remember sitting down with him [Canelo] once, and to be honest, when I first started the relationship, it was through Eddy Reynoso.
“I’d see Saul and say, ‘Yes, sir.’ Then I got to know him. When we talk about fights now, I say to him, ‘What about light heavyweights? Dmitry Bivol.’ ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. The other guy.’ I’m like, ‘Joe Smith?’ He’s like, ‘No, no, no. The other one.’ I’m like, ‘Beterbiev.’ ‘Yeah, yeah, him.’
Alvarez heading to 175 after unifying at 168
“He [Canelo] likes to take challenges, and he loves to take great fights. Dmitry Bivol and all these guys at 175 are all tough.
“The thing with Dmitry Bivol is, he’s been talking about going to 168 for a while now and can do it. They won’t fight at 168, but they might fight at a catchweight.
“Dmitry would be more than happy to do that because he makes 175 so easily. I think when you get to that stage in your career what else is there to do? He consistently fights [the best].
“Look at his run: Danny Jacobs, Callum Smith, and Billy Joe Saunders. That’s three champions that he’s faced, and particularly the Callum Smith fight was in December.
“So, really, he’s got Callum Smith, Yildirim was an easy night and Billy Joe Saunders. Before that, it was the light heavyweight champion Kovalev, and before that the middleweight champion Jacobs,” Hearn said.