Canelo Alvarez and Caleb Plant are just a day away from their big undisputed super middleweight championship fight on Showtime pay-per-view.
Who wins on Saturday? Does Canelo roll on as arguably the top pound-for-pound man in the sport, or can Caleb Plant shock the world with an upset?
Canelo is promising “something special” for Plant on Saturday after he feels that Plant “made it personal,” which led to September’s press conference scuffle and the organizers’ decision to keep the two fighters fully separate at Wednesday’s final presser. Canelo isn’t generally an overly aggressive fighter until he’s felt out that the opponent has either nothing to bother him (Avni Yildirim) or is running on fumes and whatever danger they presented has passed (Sergey Kovalev).
The huge issue for Plant on paper here is that he’s just not a puncher. He’ll argue if you say that, of course, and listen, I don’t want to be punched by Caleb Plant, and I’m not saying he doesn’t have enough pop to keep most opponents honest. But Canelo is hard to hurt even if you’re a puncher, as he’s a really sound defensive fighter, and even if you land clean to the head he’s got a big oak tree neck that seems to help him absorb power shots that do get through.
Without the power to deter Canelo, Plant has to sincerely and thoroughly out-box the Mexican superstar. I think Plant’s a really good boxer, but I don’t believe he’s quite good enough to do that. I think Caleb will win rounds, some early when Canelo is feeling it out, but I also think Canelo’s going to stop him when he turns up the heat later in the fight, having done progressive damage. I don’t think Alvarez plans to promise a stoppage and not deliver, but he won’t do it recklessly. Canelo TKO-11
This is the prediction by Scott Christ from BLH
Source: BLH
Mexico Daily Post
