Canelo Alvarez: 'I hope (Caleb Plant) has a good chin because he’s going to need it'
A reporter mentioned to Canelo Alvarez on a Zoom call Thursday afternoon that Caleb Plant, his opponent on Nov. 6, seems to have a good chin. Alvarez’s response? “I hope he has a good chin because he’s going to need it.”
That’s the Mexican star’s mindset going into the fight for undisputed super middleweight championship at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas: He believes he’ll end the fight inside the 12-round distance.
That doesn’t mean he plans to rush anything, though. His mantra has been: Be patient and the result we want will come.
“[Plant] has good boxing skills, a good jab, good moves,” Alvarez said. “He knows what he’s doing. Like I said before, that’s nothing new for me. I know what I need to do.
“I need to be patient the few first rounds, like [trainer] Eddy [Reynoso] said. Then I’ll starting doing my job.”
The oddsmakers are convinced that Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 KOs) will get the job done.
He’s about an 8-1 favorite, which is an average spread from multiple betting outlets. One website has given Alvarez a 63.6% chance of stopping Plant and a 30.3 chance of outpointing him. That means he has a 93.9 percent chance of winning, which doesn’t say much for Plant.
Alvarez doesn’t like Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) personally after some nasty exchanges between the two – including open-handed punches at a news conference – but he and Reynoso don’t see him as a pushover.
“[Plant] is someone who works well with his legs,” Alvarez’s longtime mentor said through a translator. “In the end, coming out in a really aggressive fashion the first few rounds and giving the fight away … we don’t want to do that.
“We want to be patient and let the middle rounds come to do what we want to do.”
He added: “I don’t think Plant will be that big of a challenge in the end. We’ll come out victorious. I have no doubt about our ability to do so.”
Are Alvarez and Reynoso being cocky? They would say that they’re simply well prepared, as they always are.
“The tough thing to do is not to get there but to keep yourself at the top [of the sport],” Alvarez said, “to keep working hard, trying to be better each and every day.”