The last victim of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez 56-1-2 (38) says the Mexican superstar is not unbeatable and believes Caleb ‘Sweethands’ Plant 21-0 (12) will give him problems when the pair clash at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night.
Billy Joe Saunders lost his WBO super middleweight belt to Alvarez in May after being forced to retire at the end of the eighth with a fractured orbital bone.
The British southpaw had some success early and was trailing 75-77 and 74-78 twice at the time of the stoppage.
IBF super middleweight champion Plant will enter the fight against WBC, WBA and WBO champion Alvarez as a sizeable underdog, but Saunders is one pundit who will not be surprised if he does much better than expected.
“I don’t think he’s the invincible man,” Saunders 30-1 (14) said of Alvarez to talkSPORT.
“I think that Plant’s got a very good boxing brain, he just needs to maintain his distance. Make sure you’re out of distance, don’t just think you’re out of distance because that’s the difference when you’re in with world level and elite [level].
“He’s gotta make sure to be on his game all the way, I think he’s gonna give Canelo a good fight.
“Even with it being Canelo, sometimes you can feel very comfortable. I think that’s the time where you’ve gotta realise you’re in there with an elite fighter, not a world class fighter and Canelo is an elite fighter.
“But Plant’s got all the tools to cause him problems… He’s obviously gotta keep it at long distance. Keep it very busy for the first six rounds and finish strong. He’s gotta certainly maintain that jab.
“Being orthodox – I was southpaw and that causes more problems – so he’s open to more counters obviously than what I would’ve been. You’ve gotta maintain your range at safe distance and box nice and hopefully the judges score the true boxing scorecards rather than the name of Canelo.”
Alvarez, 31, has not lost a fight in eight years since his majority decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. He has gone 14-0-1 (8) since then with the only other blemish on his ledger being his draw against Gennadiy Golovkin 41-1-1 (36) in their first fight in 2017.
Since settling into the super middleweight division last year, Alvarez has made it clear that his ambition is to become the first four-belt world champion in the weight class.
His unanimous decision victory over Callum Smith last December brought together the WBC and WBA belts while his win over Saunders added the WBO hardware to his collection.
The remaining piece of the puzzle is Plant’s IBF bauble.
“I’m gonna go with Canelo on points because of the reason of being Canelo,” Saunders said.
“I know how hard it is to get a decision and what tricks they might play leading up. [Plant] can’t let any of that get to him, completely brush it over his shoulder and hopefully let his boxing do the talking.”
