“Yeah.” That was Caleb Plant’s answer to referee Russell Mora in the eleventh round whether he wanted to keep boxing after this heavy rainfall. Plant looked at Mora as if he wanted to tell him: “Are you stupid? Should I answer: Oh no, should we leave that?” So the fight went on, and the real answer to that question the audience saw the moment Mora invited both boxers to carry on. Nobody who still wants to fight looks at their opponent the way Plant did with Saul Alvarez. Not even someone who knows he will lose looks like this – someone who knows that he has lost and everything that comes now is a punishment.
So it happened: Alvarez drove Plant along for a few seconds, and then he punished him: left hook, right hook, right hook, several blows to the head. Plant fell again, and this time Mora didn’t ask, he didn’t even count. He ended this fight to see who is the undisputed super middleweight champion. Not only because of the two downfalls, but also because of the eleven laps before that, the undisputed answer is: Saul Alvarez, everyone Canelo to name.
Undisputed (“undisputed”), that is a relatively new concept in boxing. When the discipline was mass sports, it felt like an eternity ago, it would not have occurred to anyone to question the legitimacy of belt wearers like Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson or Archie Moore; one would have been chased out of the hall, tarred and feathered. In the meantime, however, there are only more belts in the whiskers spectacle wrestling than in boxing, and that means that almost always someone wags his trophy and demands a well-paid title association.
The fight was a treat for boxing aficionados
So it was, to be honest, also with the introduction to this fight. Sure, Plant is a very good boxer, undefeated in 21 fights before the battle with Alvarez; agile, technically clean, tactically disciplined, and one with, as they say in boxing: cojones. Someone who will always answer a question from the referee whether he wants to continue boxing with “Yeah” because, against all odds, he believes he can still win. The closer the fight got, the more it was said (that’s the way it is in the pay-per-view niche discipline boxing) that Plant only had a small chance; that he could use it, but that is exactly what he has done many times in his career.
It wasn’t a battle like the one heavyweights Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder had recently fought. Rather, it was a treat for anyone who can get excited about the technical and tactical nuances of this sport. Hitting the other person more often and / or harder than you get hit yourself, that is the simple-sounding task in boxing, which becomes so incredibly complicated when two opponents meet who keep putting the brain teaser in front of each other: And how do you want that do without getting hit yourself? This skirmish was a fine example of how a fight doesn’t necessarily need knockdowns and pools of blood to be high class.
Canelo Alvarez celebrates with the Mexican flag – his fights are holidays in the country.
(Photo: David Becker / AFP)
Plant knew that Alvarez had a murderous left hook, both to his head and body, and that he liked to work the opponent’s body with his right fist. Plant therefore turned to the right, with both arms he protected his body and informed Alvarez: If you want to meet me, then with the right to the head. That sounds risky, but it has the advantage that Alvarez had to open his cover for a punch with his right fist; Plant wanted to create the dreaded straight line in this open space, anyway at a shorter distance due to the twisted upper body.
He succeeded again and again in the first few laps. Alvarez looked annoyed like the sober man at the bar fight, for whom the drunk causes more problems. Plant commuted, bravely pocketed, met again and again. Alvarez often did not take cover; during the breaks he did not even sit down, but waited to finally be allowed to continue. One thing was also clear: winning a round or two against Alvarez is like breaking a five-set match against Roger Federer.
Alvarez only lost to Floyd Mayweather junior – that was in 2013
The problem for Plant: Alvarez has been a professional since he was 15; he has almost as many World Championship fights (19) on his résumé as Plant professional fights. And he is a master at deciphering the tactics of his opponents and slowly wearing them down. He’s been an unsolvable puzzle since losing to Floyd Mayweather Jr. for the first and only time in his career in 2013. During the breaks, coach Chepo Reynoso talked about tactical subtleties; he didn’t have to cheer Alvarez on, he had to steer gently.
Alvarez opened Plant’s cover patiently and with variable attacks, for example right uppercut and double hook to the head; he dominated the fight more and more, after the tenth round the brain teaser for Plant was: And how do you still want to win this? Alvarez now looked like the sober man in the bar who knew he had the other; that not one blow will send the other into the ring dust, but the many hits before it. Plant looked dazed, but of course he carried on.
Caleb Plant is literally hanging on the ropes.
(Photo: AL BELLO / AFP)
Alvarez sat on the stool during this lap break, for the first time Reynoso did not talk about tactics; he said, “time to make history.” A minute later the fight was over. Alvarez is now the undisputed super middleweight champion, he is also still considered the best boxer in the world across all weight classes. His fights are national holidays in Mexico, he likes to appear on defining dates for this country. This time it was the weekend after Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead, the two fights against Gennady Golowkin in 2017 and 2018 took place around Mexican Independence Day.
Alvarez doesn’t want to get back in the ring until next year, on the Saturday after the holiday Cinco de MayoAnd now it gets interesting: many would like a third battle against Golovkin; Meanwhile, coach Reynoso wants the undefeated David Benavidez, whom the boxing bible is The ring was declared the best super middleweight in July – yes, magazines award belts in boxing. Oh yes: Plant informed Alvarez in the ring that he would have liked to keep boxing despite the second downpour and that he wanted a continuation. Alvarez rejected it with the worst possible humiliation for a boxer: “I told him that there was no shame in losing to me.”