The news of Canelo Alvarez negotiating a fight with Callum Smith for December 18th/19th has many fans unhappy, given that they were looking forward to the former Golden Boy promoted star to face Caleb Plant next.
For the American boxing fans and the knowledgeable hardcore fans that know the sport, they understand that Plant (20-0, 12 KOs) was the far more risky fight for Canelo, who struggles against fighters with skills.
Plant is like a tall version of Floyd Mayweather Jr, and Canelo would find himself against a formidable foe capable of dominating him in the same way that ‘Money’ did in 2013. Mayweather gave Canelo a boxing lesson, as did Erislandy Lara.
It’s agreed that Plant can do the same thing to Canelo as Lara and Maywether did. That’s why it’s not surprising that Canelo is no longer in negotiations with Plant for a fight in December, but it’s also disappointing for the fans.
In an odd move, Canelo (53-1-2, 36 KOs) is now turned his attention to the arguably easier fight against WBA super-middleweight champion Callum Smith (27-0, 19 KOs). It’s a strange move for Canelo because he just left DAZN last week after his lawsuit with them ended. Canelo is no longer signed with the streaming giant DAZN, and he also left Golden Boy.
Now that Canelo is a free agent, he can work with DAZN as his own boss, which is good for him. So all the fights that Canelo wanted to take while with DAZN, he can now set up. Callum Smith is obviously one of them, and it’ll be interesting to see if fights against Avni Yildirim and Billy Joe Saunders will soon follow.
“Just spoke to @EddieHearn, he tells @TheAthletic
that talks are ongoing toward a potential super middleweight title fight between Canelo Alvarez and Callum Smith in December on DAZN. No agreement yet, but optimism something can be struck soon,” said @MikeCoppinger.
While the casual boxing fans are excited about seeing Canelo fight Callum Smith, the more knowledgable fans see this as a mismatch and Rocky Fielding type of fight. Callum has good power and size, but like Fielding, he NO inside game.
If you watch how John Ryder was able to stymie Callum’s offense and batter him on the inside last November, it’s easy to see why Canelo picked him as his Decemer opponent rather than Caleb Plant. In terms of inside fighting ability, Callum is as good as Fielding. In other words, he has zero ability to fight on the inside.
You’e got to give Canelo credit for having eagle eyes to spot how weak and flawed Callum Smith is. The casuals, who didn’t see Callum’s last fight against Ryder, are applauding Canelo for choosing to fight the tall British fighter, but they don’t realize how he’s a monstrous step down from Caleb Plant.
After Canelo destroys Callum in December, he’ll receive a lot of credit from casuals, who will rave about him the way they did after his win against an over-the-hill Sergey Kovalev.
Instead of asking why Canelo didn’t fight Artur Beterbiev or Dmitry Bivol, casuals were felt that he’d done something special in beating 36-year-old Kovalev, a fighter that left his prime behind in 2012. Now we’re seeing a similar calculated match-up for Canelo in facing Callum Smith rather than Caleb Plant. Its disappointing to say the least.
