Canelo Alvarez dispatched Billy Joe Saunders after eight rounds on Saturday in Texas. Now it’s on to Caleb Plant for all the super middleweight marbles in September if things shake out as expected.
Should we expect a similar result in the latter fight? Plant certainly doesn’t think so.
The Las Vegas-based Tennessean, who holds the IBF 168-pound title, acknowledges that he and Saunders are both slick, well-schooled technicians. However, he said that’s where the similarities end.
“Well, for one, I feel like I take the sport a lot more serious [than Saunders does],” Plant told me and Kenneth Bouhairie on The PBC Podcast. “Saunders said himself that he doesn’t train when he doesn’t have fights coming up. And maybe he doesn’t live the best lifestyle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMs5WT5N4oA&t=510s
“Everyone who knows me knows how serious I take my training, they know how disciplined I am, they know how much I respect this sport and how much work I put into this sport. I feel that’s a big difference.”
And?
“And I feel I’m a lot faster than Billy Joe,” he said, “my defense is better, I punch harder than Billy Joe, I’m taller than Billy Joe. I feel that sometimes people misconstrue that sometimes because we both have a slick style that we fight the same.
“But that doesn’t necessarily mean that we fight the same. He doesn’t have a good jab. There are a whole lot of things I feel I do better.”
Plant, who watched the Alvarez-Saunders fight with family in Nashville, thought the British fighter performed well until a right uppercut broke his face in multiple places in Round 8.
And, yes, he believes he did “see things I feel I can take advantage of” even though he was impressed that Alvarez got the job done once again.
“It seemed like Billy Joe started to settle in around the fifth round and kind of started dictating the pace and having some success. But in the end he got caught with a big shot and that was all she wrote,” Plant said.
Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 KOs) has said that his immediate goal is to become the first undisputed 168-pound champion. Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) has the same dream.
Plant won his title by defeating Jose Uzcategui by a wide decision — putting him down twice in the process — in only his 18th pro fight. He has successfully defended three times.
Now, if he and Alvarez can come to terms on the ultimate 168-pound title-unification showdown, the 28-year-old will have the opportunity take an enormous step in his career.
He was asked on the podcast which motivates him more: the chance to become an undisputed world champion or the opportunity to take down arguably the No. 1 fighter in the world.
“I feel like with this fight right there I can knock out two birds with one stone, [defeat] a modern-day legend and become undisputed,” he responded. “Everything I’ve ever wanted out of boxing I can attain in one night.
“Like I said, that’s what I’m focused on. That’s where my eyes are set.”
Alvarez would be a significant favorite to beat Plant, which is no surprise given their respective places in boxing hierarchy.
Plant couldn’t care less about the opinions of oddsmakers or pundits. If he had listened to naysayers along the way, he said, he wouldn’t have a piece of the super middleweight championship and be in position to face the biggest star in the sport.
“I know in my heart that I can win,” he said. “And no matter who tells me differently they’re not going to be able to persuade me. I’ve been told my whole life what I can and can’t be and what I can and can’t achieve. And so far they’ve all been wrong. … If they were able to conquer and accomplish all the tings I have, they’d feel they were unstoppable too.
“When we get that fight, I will get my hand raised and it will be a great night and great victory. It will set my name in stone in history books forever.”
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