WBA/WBC/WBO super middleweight super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez revealed on Wednesday that he feels more hostility towards IBF champion Caleb ‘Sweethands’ Plant than any other fighter he’s ever faced before.
After just one press conference, Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) said enough to anger Canelo (56-1-2, 38 KOs) more than any of his previous 59 opponents during his long 16-year career.
Alvarez, 31, held a virtual media workout on Wednesday to discuss his undisputed 168-lb clash against Plant next month on November 6th on SHOWTIME PPV at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Canelo previously said that he wants to break Plant’s jaw because of the things he said about him, one of which had to do with him testing positive for a banned substance in 2018.
Plant got under Canelo’s skin during their kickoff press conference last September in Los Angeles, calling him a “drug cheat” among other things.
When it came time for the two fighters to stand for a face-off, Canelo was so angry that he couldn’t control himself and shoved Plant and then swatted him with a right hand.
“This is new for me, I’ve never had as much bad blood with an opponent than this one. Yes, this is the most animosity that I’ve had heading into a big prizefight,” Canelo said about Plant during the media workout on Wednesday.
You can argue that Canelo may have had just as much bad blood for Gennadiy Golovkin in their rematch in 2018 as he does with Plant. If you remember their final press conference, Canelo shoved GGG, but he didn’t go flying backward the way that the gangly Plant did.
As long as Canelo doesn’t lose his mind entirely, he should have a great chance of winning his fight with Plant next month.
In Canelo’s last fight against WBO 168-lb champion Billy Joe Saunders, he broke the British fighter’s right orbital bone after tagging him with an uppercut in the eighth round.
It was a situation that was bound to habit sooner or later because Saunders was leaning forward with his hands down by his sides from the fourth round on.
Saunders’ trainer should have told him to keep his hands up because he begging to be hit by one of Canelo’s uppercuts with the way he was fighting. Plant won’t make that same mistake because he’s very disciplined when it comes to keeping his guard up to protect himself.
For Canelo to win, however, he’s going to need to increase his punch output because it’s really dropped off dramatically in recent years.
When Canelo was younger, he used to be able to throw a fair amount of shots, but we haven’t seen that in several years. Now what we see is Canelo stalking his opponents and loading up on homerun shots, looking to hurt them.
He may have developed that bad habit from his two fights with Golovkin because that’s what he was doing. But Golovkin was naturally stronger than Canelo, and he didn’t have to wind up as much to land with power.
Plant may take advantage of Canelo if the Mexican star doesn’t keep his head on right because he’s going to be looking to take advantage of his mistakes.
