Andre Ward is lending IBF super middleweight champion Caleb ‘Sweethands’ Plant a helping hand to prepare for his undisputed 168-lb championship fight against WBA/WBC/WBO champ Canelo Alvarez on November 6th in Las Vegas, Nevada.
With Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) an underdog in this fight, he needs all the help he can get to overcome the huge advantage in experience and power that Canelo (56-1-2, 38 KOs) will be bringing to the table in two months from now on FOX Sports pay-per-view.
The former super middleweight champion Ward obviously knows Canelo’s weaknesses from watching him over the years, and he’s likely got the perfect game plan for Plant, 28 to follow to attempt to beat him.
Plant needs multiple game plans
With Canelo, he can adapt quickly to different things that his opponents employ in the fight. As such, if Plant chooses to stay on the outside using his jab all night, Canelo will apply pressure and look to win rounds by landing the harder shots.
In Canelo’s past fights, we’ve seen that he only needs to land two or three hard shots per round to get the judges to give him the round. The judges seem to filter out jabs and weaker shots that Canelo is hit with.
That’s how Canelo was given a 12 round draw in his first fight with Gennadiy Golovkin in 2017 and a win in the second. The judges put more weight on Canelo, landing 1 to 3 hard shots per round, and ignored all the head-snapping jabs that Golovkin was hitting him with.
Aiming right for the head not aiming to please. UNDISPUTEDxUNDISPUTED @andreward pic.twitter.com/aJ8TXz23lr
— CalebPlant (@SweetHandsPlant) September 4, 2021
For Plant to beat the popular ‘Face of Boxing’ Canelo, he’ll not only need to out-jab him from the outside, but he’s also going to need to land more power shots.
It might not be enough for Plant to land as many hard shots as Canelo because you’ve got to factor in his popularity.
Beating Canelo by decision won’t be easy
When you fight Canelo, you’re dealing with a star, and there is no equality with his popularity. You got to do a lot more to beat Canelo than you would a normal fighter.
Whatever Ward’s game plan is, hopefully, he recognizes that Plant can’t stay on the outside and use his fine jab all night in hopes of getting the nod with the judges when they render their decision.
Plant has got to go to war with Canelo a certain amount of time and show the judges that he’s the superior fighter all around because they’re not likely going to give him the decision if he boxes.
What we saw with Manny Pacquiao recently losing to Yordenis Ugas probably isn’t possible for Plant to pull off against Canelo if he fought in the same way the Cuban did. Canelo’s popularity is through thereof right now, and you don’t beat him by a decision unless you do something special.
Canelo the face of boxing and it comes with alot of hate …just ask Floyd
Canelo outclassed Callum Smith and the Brit seemed shell shocked from the opening bell. Saunders had a moment or two but didn’t have the power to bother Canelo. Good fighters like Austin Trout were just worn down and eventually succumbed to big shots. Kovalev was a surprise and maybe a step behind his best days but again, it was just a matter of time before the big shots caught him. Plant doesn’t have the power to hurt Canelo. He’s determined, proud, defiant, and skilled but nothing special. Canelo by 12 round wide unanimous decision because Plant will be slick enough to survive. Biggest unknown is how he’ll react in the post-fight. Biggest future challenges for Canelo: Benavidez and Charlo. Both have power. We’ll see.
Yup
He hating 100% he need to do what he does best and thats be ring side and he not even good at that. When he commentating! In the other hand bradley keeps him afloat…
I’ve been watching Canelo a long time but that doesn’t mean I obviously figured him out. To say that because we’ve seen him fight so that automatically gives us a proven game plan is just not true. You have to go in there and execute, still doesn’t guarantee a win. It’s good to see Plant is trying something different and won’t roll over, but only the fight will tell the tale. Looks like a good fight is brewing especially with Plant talking crap about the team.
Fanboy killer got all in his fan man feelings . Straight up hater nothing more. Just to shut ya up Fannie killa if canelo was your ethnicity you be singing a different song. Kovalev whooped dre 1st fight 2nd low blows and ref won that one nelo don’t hug all three his fights. State facts chump
Ward is a true hater for reals.
Yup!
Ward hating on Canelo because he’s on the verge of unifying something ward never did. True hater for real.
That’s a terrible take. Ward went undefeated, beat a prime Carl Froch, Kessler, Abraham, and wrapped it up by beating Kovalev twice, when Kovalev was in his prime. Andre Ward beat Froch, when Froch was ranked P4P and Kovalev when Kovalev was ranked P4P. Canelo only beat one person when they were on the P4P list. That only person was GGG. Who cares about going Undisputed, when you’re fighting dudes like Saunders, Callum Smith, and Caleb Plant to get there. Dudes who would never sniff a P4P list.
Didn’t WARD win the super six tournament? He beat like all the top 5 Super Middleweights at the time which were far better than anyone at 68 today.