Keith Thurman previews Canelo Alvarez vs. Caleb Plant

By Jeff Sorby - 10/16/2021 - Comments

Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman says Caleb Plant will need a great game plan for him to defeat Canelo Alvarez in their upcoming fight on November 6th. Alvarez and Plant are meeting for the undisputed super middleweight championship at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The winner will be the first-ever undisputed 168-lb champion.

Thurman sees Canelo (56-1-2, 38 KOs) as being similar to a Great White shark with the way he stalks his prey and takes them out in a vicious manner.

For IBF super middleweight champion Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) not o wind up as Canelo’s next victim, he’s going to need to develop a winning strategy to keep out of the way of his big shots.

Thurman notes how Canelo came back against his last opponent WBO 168-lb champion Billy Joe Saunders and hurt him with a big uppercut in the eighth round last May.

Canelo struggled early but hunted Saunders down in a shark-like manner until hitting him with the perfect shot in the eighth round to fracture his right orbital bone. After the round ended, Saunders’ team pulled him out when they saw how badly damaged his eye looked.

Plant has an opportunity to showcase

“Canelo is just bad. Canelo is just dangerous,” said Thurman to Fighthub TV on Alvarez’s next fight against Caleb Plant. “I mean, he punches a heavy bag, but he punches it like he’s punching a wall.

Keith Thurman previews Canelo Alvarez vs. Caleb Plant

“One day, there’s not going to be a heavy bag; there’s not going to be a wall. There’s going to be Caleb Plant. The whole thing, we saw it in his last fight. I don’t get the 411; I don’t get all the info all the time.

“I’m not fully up to date, but I do get updates. The update that I got, and it’s enough for me to hear because I already know who Canelo is as a fighter.

“I’ve seen enough of him, but Canelo has his eyes on the KO. He steps in, and he’s fully committed to his attack.

“I heard the other guy [Billy Joe Saunders] was keeping up with Canelo, boxing him. The unofficial scorecards may have had the guy leading. I don’t know who was truly leading. All I know is it was the last fight.

“All I saw was the highlight uppercut the next day where he [Canelo] busted the dude’s eye. That’s the thing. Don’t leave it up to the judges. That’s where the name ‘One Time’ originally comes from.

When you commit to the punch, the punch that’s going to do the job, this left hook, this right uppercut, this straight right hand, that’s what you’re dealing with in fighting Canelo.

“You’re dealing with a series of power punches that any of them can put you out if you let him step into you, and you’re there to get clobbered.

“Caleb Plant has a lot of heart, a lot of grit, and a lot of drive, and he has a great skillset himself. So there’s no one better to showcase all that you have outside of Canelo Alvarez,” said Thurman.

This is the perfect opportunity for the 28-year-old ‘Sweethands’ Plant to show off his silky smooth boxing skills and try and school Canelolike he’s done to his first 21 opponents he’s faced.

Is Plant too skilled for the shorter 5’8″ Canelo? We’ll soon find out. Canelo’s low work rate could be a problem because he’s become overly reliant on his power since he moved up to 168 in 2018.

That approach might not work against a talented fighter like Plant, who can throw a lot of shots, and he’s not easy to hit.

You have to believe that Canelo’s punch accuracy will be in the single digits in this fight, which will make it difficult for him if he doesn’t increase his punch volume.

Canelo is deadly powerful

“When you’re fighting someone of Canelo’s caliber, you need to go in with a really good game plan,” said Thurman about Plant.  “You need to go in with a great game plan because everyone has got a game plan until they get hit.

“The hands [of Canelo] are deadly. It’s a great fight for him at this time. It’s truly a great fight for Caleb Plant for his career. I still think Canelo has people that he hasn’t fought that would be great fights to see.

Keith Thurman previews Canelo Alvarez vs. Caleb Plant

“The man just delivers,” said Thurman about Canelo. “Is he entertaining? Yeah, he’s truly entertaining to someone to watch, and he can fight his way.

“He [Canelo] can move and be patient with it, and he doesn’t have to rush into it nowadays because he knows it’s like a great white [shark]. In every round, he’s creeping up on the knockout.

“We got to see if it doesn’t happen, but that’s 12 rounds later. It’s just great action,” Thurman said.

We’ve seen Canelo doing a lot of loading up on his punches ever since his rematch with Gennadiy Golovkin in 2018.

While that style has worked against the opposition he’s faced in the last three years; it might not be effective against Plant. He’s hard to hit and excellent at countering his opponents, especially when they load up the way Canelo does.

Thurman wants to see what Plant can do

“I’m probably going to tune in to it,” said Thurman. “I don’t tune in to every Canelo fight, but I know I’m going to see a great fight.

“I just want to see what Plant shows the world. I always say, ‘Styles make fights,’ but if you really study your opponent and if you see something, it’s a sport.

“We are athletes. That’s what we do. If you’re on the court and somebody knows you’re weak to the left side, they know you’re weak to the left side in a different game, and you show up, and you show up better, and you show up stronger.

“That’s the thing. Here in boxing, there is no next season. It’s here and now and how you commit to the performance and how you commit to the training camp.

“So, I’m just happy to see boxing being able to put on great cards this year. It was better than 2020, and I’m looking forward to getting back in action myself.

“In 2022, we should be rolling in a lot more entertainment for the world to see in all the divisions,” said Thurman.

We’ve seen Plant dominate fighters like Mike Lee, Vincent Feigenbutz, and Jose Uzcategui. Now, we get a chance to see if Plant can do the same thing with his technical skills to Canelo on November 6th.

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2 thoughts on “Keith Thurman previews Canelo Alvarez vs. Caleb Plant”

  1. PLANT CAN TALK. THAT MEANS NOTHING. THE LAST GUY DID THAT. WE SEEN WHAT MAKING CANLEO MAD CAN DO. I AM STILL TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW THE JUDGES HAD BILLY JOE WINNING A ROUND. WHEN CANLEO HIT SAUNDERS WITH THE FRIST BODY SHOT. THE LOOK ON SAUNDERS FACE. SAID THIS FIGHT IS OVER

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