No one is unbeatable.
Fighters can have an air of being invincible, but to the trained eye, you can see where there are opportunities and a path to victory.
Don’t get me wrong, it is hard, but who said life or fighting Canelo Alvarez is easy.
There is no blueprint in defeating great fighters because knowing what to do and actually doing it are two different things.
It is easy to say go out there and be Floyd Mayweather and GGG, but there aren’t too many fighters in the world with their skill sets.
It is an uphill battle for Caleb Plant, but not an impossibility.
I have watched the last 20 Canelo fights (10 from ringside), and I feel confident knowing what Plant has to do to win. I am not confident he can do it.
1- BE FIRST
I can not stress this enough. You have to throw your hands. I am not saying be wild, but you can’t just let Canelo sit there and dictate the action. That is mentally and physically draining. You can’t have lulls in the action. You are always the B-side when fighting Canelo. To win rounds, you have to win them convincingly. The punches have to be clear and crisp. It is tough to do because Canelo has a great defense and counter punching skills at this point in his career, but you have to be smart, fast, and busy.
2- Win in the pocket and stand your ground.
This is where we separate the little dogs from the big dogs. People misunderstand a lot of things about the pocket. That doesn’t mean just standing there and brawling with your chin out. It means you have to be a man and stand your ground at times in time middle of the ring. You can move and be defensively sound, but you can’t beat Canelo off the back foot. That makes the fight easy for him. You have to make your movements, side to side, left to right, but all in that circumference on the center of the ring. Don’t linger, get your combination off, make a slight movement and make Canelo reset.
As someone who has covered many fights I can always tell fake beef. This is not it. Canelo does not like Plant and the feeling is mutual. #CaneloPlant pic.twitter.com/6AzQjmNJYZ
— Robert Littal BSO (@BSO) November 5, 2021
3- Chin check.
This isn’t something you can teach. This isn’t something that you can learn in the gym. If you plan to win a fight like this, you are going to get hit. The key is don’t get hit clean and don’t get hit with something you don’t see, but it is boxing everyone gets hit, and if Plant’s chin is not up to the task, then it might be a short night. Canelo hasn’t been visibly hurt in a fight for at least ten years, so his chin is not in question.
4- Go to the Body
When someone has an iron chin, the only way to slow them down is to consistently go to the Body. You have to try to take the wind out of them. Canelo has a brutal body attack, but no one, even Canelo, doesn’t like being hit to the Body. You slow killers down with Body blows. They don’t even have to be wild shots, jabs to the Body, hit him in his ribs in the clinch. This Canelo’s fourth fight in 11 months tests that endurance.
Plant is a considerable underdog, 10-1 underdog the last time I checked, but that means nothing when you get in the ring.
The fight he should be studying non-stop is the Anthony Joshua-Oleksandr Usyk Fight. Usyk, against a much bigger man, stood his ground, always got off first, used subtle movement to stay out of danger, and showed a solid chin.
The problem for the Plant is Canelo isn’t Joshua, but the idea of what needs to be done stands.
Do I think he can do it?
Maybe for half the fight, I have seen others like Austin Trout, Kovalev, Danny Jacobs, and most recently Billy Joe Saunders have success, but later in the fight, the mental stress just gets to them, and Canelo normally takes over.
I have Canelo TKO 10th round. I don’t think he will knock Plant out clean, but the ref will stop the fight.