By Geno McGahee
Canelo Alvarez, 57-1-2, 39 KO’s, did what he was expected to and knocked out the former IBF super middleweight champion, Caleb Plant, 21-1, 12 KO’s, taking the belt and unifying the IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO titles.
Plant tried to use his movement and some Floyd Mayweather, JR., tactics to win the fight and he, arguably, won the first four rounds. Plant stayed in the pocket and tried countering with the right cross as he made Canelo miss and it worked, but it did not detour the aggressive Alvarez.
Canelo kept attacking and cutting off the ring and the pressure became too much. In round 11, Canelo landed a left hook that dropped Plant for the first time in his career and then finished him off shortly after. By that time, Canelo had full control of the fight.
If you can’t hurt Canelo, you can’t beat him. That’s the story with Canelo. He will walk right through any opponent if they can’t keep him off. Plant was never going to win with fight because Alvarez did not respect the incoming shots.
It’s fair to say that there’s not a really competitive fight at 168 or below. If he moves to 175, there’s a few fighters that could give him a real fight and have the power to hurt him.
