Caleb Plant Continues His Quest For A Canelo Alvarez Unification Bout
With only 20 fights in his professional career so far, Caleb Plant has proven to be a hot commodity within boxing’s super-middleweight division. The IBF Super-Middleweight Champion is only 27-years-old and is extremely confident in his ability. Plant believes he can unify the division by beating the best fighters out there.
That includes Canelo Alvarez.
“I feel that I am the best 168-pound champion that there is,” Plant stated to Boxing Scene. “I am the most well rounded. I have the best boxing IQ. I have all of the tools to beat every champion. All of them are good at this and that, but they can’t make the adjustments that I can.
“Canelo is not controlling 168. I’m controlling 168. I’m going to be right here for a minute. When all of the middleweights move up to 168, I’ll be waiting on them.”
Plant has been recently campaigning for a bout against Canelo, the WBA Super-Middleweight Champion. “Sweethands” was offered a bout with Canelo back in February, but did not want to risk another brutal training camp. This came after he defended his IBF title against Vincent Feigenbutz. He is now trying to bring those talks back.
Following his win over Feigenbutz, Plant called out WBC Super-Middleweight Champion David Benavidez, who was sitting right next to the ring. Benavidez and Plant were on Canelo’s radar according to head coach Eddy Reynoso.
Canelo (53-1-2) has only fought at super-middleweight once. After beating Gennadiy Golovkin for the WBA, WBC and The Ring Middleweight Titles, Canelo took care of Rocky Fielding with ease inside Madison Square Garden. On that December 2018 evening, Canelo hit a hard liver shot that took Fielding down via TKO to win the WBA Super-Middleweight Title.
While Golden Boy’s Oscar De La Hoya is trying to dismiss Plant, the latter is doing whatever he can to get what he wants. He wants to make sure everything is secure, however, so there are no surprises.
“I want a unification match,” Plant went on to say. “I’m not doing any catchweights or 10-round fights. I’m a world champion, 12-round fighter who will fight in my weight class at 168. I’m 13 pounds away from weight right now. I’m in shape. I’ve been running. The only thing that I haven’t been doing is sparring because we have a pandemic on our hands.”
Canelo was planning on facing Billy Joe Saunders in May, but the coronavirus pandemic postponed those plans. Now, there are talks of him facing Saunders or Ryota Murata, with a trilogy bout with Golovkin still on the table.