Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez faces Caleb Plant on Saturday night as he continues his quest to become the first-ever undisputed super middleweight champion.
Alvarez last fought in May to claim the WBO belt previously held by Billy Joe Saunders, and the Mexican emerged a convincing and brutal winner by breaking Saunder's eye socket. He added the strap to his WBA and WBC titles.
IBF title holder Plant fought namesake Caleb Truax in January 2021 to defend his championship. While he may be considered a stark underdog, he has plenty of talent in his own right and can be consdiered a threat to Canelo. Plant, after all, needs just one punch to land correctly and he will emerge as the undisputed just the same.
Here's what our resident fight fans had to say.
Chris Walker: Plant offers no worries for flawless Canelo
Watching Canelo Alvarez for the last couple of years is witnessing a fighter far better than those he’s in the ring with. That trend won’t stop against Caleb Plant on Saturday night as the throne at 12st is on the line for both fighters.
Canelo’s performances against Callum Smith, Avni Yildrim and Billy Joe Saunders in the last 11 months have been flawless and it’s hard to see what Plant brings that the Mexican hasn’t seen before.
The Tennessee fighter, the current IBF champion at super-middleweight, has enough skills to enjoy a career at the top level but Canelo is above that and that will show this weekend. Plant may nick one or two rounds as Canelo takes a proper look in the fight’s early rounds, but once he’s worked out what’s in front of him, he can take over and earn a late stoppage.
Prediction: Canelo via TKO in tenth round
Matt Astbury: Canelo is unstoppable
For a fight of such historic proportions, it’s a pity Canelo vs. Plant is so one-sided. For Plant he gets his moment on boxing’s biggest stage and is set for a career high pay day, and that’s about all the positives coming the IBF champion’s way.
His opponent Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez looks unstoppable in what will be his fourth fight in under a year in his quest to become the undisputed champion at super-middleweight, and after smashing the side of Billy Joe Saunders’ face in Texas last May, I believe Plant will endure similar punishment and end up on the canvas after being worn down by a barrage of trademark Canelo body punches.
Prediction: Canelo by knockout in seventh round
Alexander Netherton: Canelo the certain winner
Kurt Gödel was a mathematician, logician and philosopher born at the start of the turn of the last century, in 1906, and who suffered with mental health problems that ultimately contributed to his death in 1978. Growing increasingly paranoid, he was not able to cope without his wife when she entered hospital, and he died of malnutrition. Despite that tragic end, he nonetheless contributed some of the most important work to modern mathematics and philosophy in his earlier years.
Essentially Godel posited that we can't truly know something until we know it has happened. We cannot be sure a computer can carry out a calculation until it does so. We don’t know how long it will take until the task is completed. We can guess, suppose, and we can theorise, but we can't know. This, indeed, holds for everything that has yet to be shown. You cannot know until it has happened.
Except for this fight. Canelo will win that.
Prediction: Canelo by knockout in fifth round
Liam Happe: Canelo win inevitable but knockout will be a challenge
I don't think many people, with the exception of Caleb Plant stakeholders, expect the American to win this winner-takes-all bout for undisputed super-middleweight glory. I, like my colleagues here, do not expect anything but a Canelo Alvarez victory. And the fact Plant tried his luck at the first press conference and was immediately outclassed even in a brief scuffle did not convince anyone he will pull off the upset.
However that aforementioned dust-up will have also served as a warning to Plant, showing him exactly what will happen if he attempts to engage close-up. His technical skills and ring generalship aren't bad, they're not bad at all. And now I expect him to box even cagier than he would have anyway. As a result, unless Alvarez finds that champagne shot as he did against Billy Joe Saunders, I think the undefeated fighter will have enough about him to not be absolutely anihilated. He will, however, be totally outclassed.
Prediction: Canelo via unanimous decision
The Canelo vs. Plant fight will not air on DAZN. However, The DAZN Boxing Show will be in Las Vegas during fight week for live episodes, exclusive interviews and more.