Shawn Porter says Caleb Plant is going to need to use his power to beat Canelo Alvarez on Saturday night because he’s not going to win the fight on speed alone.
The reason Plant’s power important is that if he can’t get Canelo’s respect, he’ll walk him down and get in close range to land one of his big bone-crunching shots to the head.
Canelo’s last opponent Billy Joe Saunders suffered an eye injury in the eighth round, forcing the fight to be stoppages last May.
“He’s just another opponent in my way,” said Caleb Plant about Canelo. “Those are just words. He’s going to have to do it on November 6th. He’s going to have to back that up,” said Plant when reminded that Canelo is vowing to break his jaw this Saturday.
“If this fight wasn’t Canelo Alvarez, Caleb Plant has ten fights, but beating this one guy, beating Canelo Alvarez puts him in the Hall of Fame. He has to have a Hall of Fame performance, he’s got to use his speed and he’s got to use his confidence.
“He’s got to use his power. I do know he’s got power that’s overlooked and we will see what happens. I think if there is somebody in the boxing world that can beat Canelo, it will be Caleb Plant,” said Porter.
It’ll be risky for Plant to use his power because he’ll need to sit down on his shots and be stationary long enough for him to load up on his punches.
“I see Caleb surviving most of the rounds and probably winning a lot of the rounds, but I see Canelo as two strong and walking him down like he did in the last fight [against Billy Joe Saunders,” said Teofimo Lopez Sr. to Fight Hub TV on the Canelo vs. Plant fight.
“I got Canelo knocking him out around the eighth or the ninth round, and Caleb isn’t a bad boy. It’s just what I believe in. Canelo is my boy too. Let the best man win,” said Lopez Sr.
Canelo is predicting an eighth round stoppage, so Teofimo Sr. could wind up being right with his prediction.
“Do I think Caleb can pull it off? Yes, but he’s got to have a lot of air and box him the whole freaking 12 rounds. He needs to be physically fit for this fight in every round,” said Teofimo Sr.
Plant will likely be fine in the first six or seven rounds when it comes to his ability to move around the ring. But it’s going to be hard for him to stay on the run for the full 12 rounds, and land enough punches to win the fight.
I think Plant can definitely survive for 12 rounds against Canelo, but winning the contest is a different story. If Plant is too tired to get any power on his shots, the judges are going to give every round to Canelo and he won’t be close on the cards at the end.
“Canelo might get hit, but he doesn’t care. He just keeps walking you down until he gets you,” said Teofimo Sr. “He starts hitting you to the body to slow you down. So can Caleb Plant beat him? Yes, he can, but he’s got to go in there with a winning spirit. He can’t go in there like a loser,” said Teofimo Sr.
Plant also can’t go in there and fight scared like we saw in the last quarter of his match with Jose Uzcategui in 2019.
When Uzcategui was putting the head on the tired out Plant, you could see how nervous he was. When an average fighter like Uzcategui can do that to you, it’s cause for concern. I don’t see Plant being able to fight at a high enough level to beat Canelo.
What power?!?
Canelo in a ko by 8th round. Just to physical and his body punches are devastating. Plant will get to close at times and then the body will take a beating and opening his head to powerful onslaughts.
Plant just doesn’t have it. Canelo has advantages in talent , experience and accomishments. Even with an unbelievable, career best performance by Plant, if the fight is remotely close or Canelo isn’t knocked cold the judges will give the benefit of every doubt to their red headed poster boy. And if that isn’t enough, there are the pharmaceuticals that seem to find their way into all of the Reynosa fighters (with the blessing of the WBC). Plant is way too average to deal with all that.
People keep pointing out Mayweather and Lara of the blue print to beat Canelo. But I feel Canelo was comprehensively beaten in his first fight with Golovkin also the second but that was close. Plant needs to establish a very strong Jab and control the distance plus keep up a great pace. Some how Canelo seems to have fixed his gas tank lately..so this will be really hard to do if Plant tires which he does do.
Back him up and bully Canelo around; he’ll run out of gas.
You Bully Canelo and that opens up the inside for him to attack the body. His body punches are devastating. Which in turn opens up the upper body “The Head” its over by 8 in a ko for Canelo.