Canelo Alvarez vs. Caleb Plant is reportedly close to taking place just before summer comes to a close.
ESPN is reporting that Canelo will likely be putting his WBC, IBF, WBO, and The Ring Super-Middleweight Titles on the line against Plant, who will defend the IBF gold. The winner of this fight will be recognized as the undisputed 168-pound champion.
Canelo was last seen inside the ring back in May against Billy Joe Saunders. Canelo captured the WBO Title via eighth-round corner stoppage. Plant had a successful IBF Title defense against Caleb Truax, winning the fight via unanimous decision.
Canelo has said that even if he unifies the super-middleweight gold, he will not be fighting in the light-heavyweight division again.
Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn had urged Plant to push his team to make the title unification bout happen. Here’s what Hearn said during an appearance on the DAZN Boxing Show (h/t BoxingScene).
“Al Haymon doesn’t really want to give up Caleb Plant, you know, to Canelo Alvarez. I didn’t know that. Well, I mean, I’m presuming I mean, I think that that’s pretty obvious. Like, if you’ve got a belt and a piece of that 168-pound division… really, he will want to use that almost as bait to bring Canelo in and sign a five-fight deal or six-fight deal, because he knows how bad Canelo wants to be undisputed.
“It comes down to the fighter that, you know, the fighters, they trust advisors they treat, you know, maybe they’ve got a better plan. But where I’m looking at it, there’s a huge amount of money on the table for Caleb Plant to fight Alvarez in September. But it’s really down to him.”
