TONIGHT Caleb Plant takes on the most challenging task in the sport, trying to dethrone Canelo Alvarez, the great Mexican who has looked almost the complete fighter in his super-middleweight run so far.
But Plant is adamant that he is different from Canelo’s recent opposition, that he truly believes he can “accomplish unbelievable things” while those others didn’t have that confidence. “Just the posture, the way that they walk, the way that they talk, the way they approach him and the way they fight,” Plant said. “It might have been hard for [Callum Smith] to come up with a bunch of game plans when Canelo only gave him five weeks’ notice and that’s four training weeks. A man of his frame, I’m sure it’s hard to make ’68 so to try and make ’68 with half a camp, get sharp, get sparring, I mean what’s his mentality going into the fight, is he really trying to win that fight? Is he putting himself in the best position to win that fight?
“How can he really believe?”
“I don’t know their mentalities,” he continued. “I’m not worried about [Canelo’s] mentality or his mindset. I don’t care what his game plan is. I’m not focusing on anything he’s doing. I’m focusing on me and my team and my gameplan and what I’m supposed to do and that’s it.
“I’ve been in rough waters before, I’m sure it’ll be the roughest come Saturday night but some people perform better when they’re being booed and there’s a big crowd and there’s people wanting you lose and there’s some people who are gym fighters. But I think we can all agree I’m not a gym fighter. When it was time for me to step up and fight Porky [Medina] in Texas or when I fought Jose Uzcategui in California he had a bunch of fans, and I like people rooting against me. I feel like that puts me in the best position to bring the best out of me.”
Uzcategui has been the most significant win so far in Plant’s career. The Venezuelan recently tested positive for a banned substance and was pulled from his November 13 fight with David Benavidez. “There’s nothing for me to be mad about, I whupped his ass and took his belt so it ain’t nothing for me to be mad about,” Caleb said. “We really didn’t have all the testing for that fight. We tested before the fight and right after. So you know it’s hard to say [if it was a fair fight]. That’s why you should avoid doing things like that because no matter what you’ve done in the sport, once you test positive there’s always going to be a question mark beside all your accomplishments and all your fights.”
It’s a point that he could also apply to Canelo Alvarez, who was suspended for an adverse finding from a drug test back in 2018. In the weeks building up to this fight, Plant has not shied away from bringing up that episode, a dent in the Mexican’s generally pristine image. However, Plant has no quibbles with the drug testing that has been put in place for this fight. He’s been tested quite a lot in camp. “I don’t have the exact number but I feel like we’re in a good spot,” Plant said. “I feel like we’re in a good spot with the testing.”
It means as far as the American is concerned he can concentrate on his boxing. “Really the intensity wasn’t different than any other camp. I’m not going to train harder for this fighter, or train less for this fighter,” Caleb said. “You don’t become a world champion by training like a world champion after you win a belt. If you want to become world champion, long before that you’ve got to walk like one, talk like one, train like one, carry yourself like one and that means training as hard as you can for every fight, whether it’s your pro debut, whether it’s a world title, whether it’s undisputed, I don’t train any different for any other fight. And I feel like that that’s one of the reasons I’m in this position because I take my job really serious, I don’t cut corners. I’m disciplined.”
The fight week came to life on Friday with crowds packing into the MGM Grand just for the weigh in, and that will be only a taster of what awaits Plant inside the arena. How he reacts to the crowd will be another factor in the contest.
Plant maintains that ultimately what will make the difference isn’t just his physical preparation but his mindset and ability to adapt during a contest. “In all big fights it comes down to adjustments,” Plant says. “So I’m sure that will play a part.
“He can’t think as good as I can think, I know that.”
Canelo Alvarez is a master tactician. For Plant to outfox him would be the most astonishing aspect of what would be an astonishing upset. The expectation is all on Canelo. But Plant believes and that, he insists, is all he needs.