The stage is now set for tonight, which will see the first four-belt unification in super middleweight history. The winner will also become only the sixth man in boxing history to concurrently hold all four major world title belts, joining Bernard Hopkins, Jermain Taylor, Terence Crawford, Oleksander Usyk and Josh Taylor. The elite club wil induct a new member at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas when WBC/WBA/WBO champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez takes on Caleb Plant, his third undefeated opponent in his last four bouts. Alvarez, today’s pound-for-pound ace has already joined Sven Ottke, Joe Calzaghe, Mikkel Kessler, Carl Froch, and Andre Ward as the only men to successfully unify titles at 168 pounds.
The IBF champion, Plant will share the ring with the Mexican great and he is fully confident that he can derail the Canelo express. Plant is taller by five inches and has a four-inch reach advantage. With his slick boxing ability and defensive prowess, he believes that he can present problems for Canelo stylistically. Though, it is unlikely that he will show the 16-year veteran, who is making his 20th world title appearance, anything that he hasn’t already seen, and Canelo has plenty of experience of late dismantling taller, larger foes. On top of that, Plant has angered Canelo with his taunts, which led to a press conference scuffle back in September.
However, this is boxing and anything can happen.
Both Canelo and Plant will be making the largest paydays of their respective careers, with Canelo expected to take in $40 million and Plant, $10 million. “I’m grateful and appreciative of this opportunity,” said +600 underdog Plant. “But I’m not here focusing on building my name. I’m here for those belts and for that win. That’s all I’m focusing on.”
This is a career-defining fight for Plant and he knows it. In preparation for this bout, Plant sought the advice of Hall-of-Famer and former ruler of the super middleweight division, Andre Ward. They spent a few days in the gym together discussing strategy.
Ward, who always placed a large emphasis on game plans throughout his illustrious ring tenure, believes that, despite the odds, the IBF champion has the tools to pull off the upset.
“I’m not a believer when you face a guy that’s powerful or a guy that’s supposed to have punching power, you’re [supposed to] avoid him and be perfect for 12 [rounds]. I don’t believe in that. I like to go rattle their cage. In fact, you’ve got to rattle the cage. What I mean by that is that sometimes you’ve got to go to that power and smother it. You’ve got to let them know, whoever it is, hey, you can get hurt, too,” said Ward.
“Caleb is a guy that has more power than they realize. I think he’s physically strong. I just think it’s always crazy until you do it. It’s easy for fans to choose – the easy pick is Canelo because of his history and everything he accomplished. But I’ll support Caleb, win, lose, or draw. I think he has a great opportunity to go out there and shock the world. He just needs to put his mental on and make it happen.”
Ward’s career-defining moment came when he participated in the Super Six World Boxing Classic, devised by the Showtime network to fill the void left by former kingpin Joe Calzaghe, who moved on to light heavyweight. The tournament consisted of eight men: WBA champion Mikkel Kessler, WBC champion Carl Froch, former middleweight champions Jermain Taylor and Arthur Abraham, former light heavyweight champion Glen Johnson, and contenders Andre Ward, Andre Dirrell and Allan Green.
By that time, Ward, a 2004 US Olympic gold medalist, had built himself into a solid contender, at 20-0, but had never competed against the level of opposition waiting for him in the tournament. Not many picked him to win. Over a period of two years, from 2009 to 2011, and 11 fights between the contestants, Ward emerged as the tournament’s winner and new king at super middleweight.
Just prior to the tournament, a 23-0 Froch picked up the vacated WBC title with a points win against a 21-0 Jean Pascal in December 2008, then overcame a blistering attack by Taylor to stop him in the final round in defense of the belt. Eight months after losing to Calzaghe, Kessler regained the WBA title with a 12th-round knockout of 22-0 Dimitri Sartison, then defended twice before entering the Super Six.
Ward began the series with a bang, upsetting favorited Kessler via 11th-th round technical decision when a headbutt opened a cut over the Dane’s right eye. In the second leg of the tournament, Kessler rebounded to unseat Froch as WBC champion in 2010’s “Fight of the Year” held in Denmark. However, the cut suffered against Ward worsened and Kessler withdrew from the Super Six that August, with the WBC vacating the belt. Froch then regained the WBC strap with a decision victory against Abraham in Finland, as part of the third stage of matchups. The finale saw Ward defeat Froch to unify the WBC and WBA belts, on December 17, 2011.
The IBF and WBO champions did not participate in the Super Six. Colombian Alejandro Berrio defeated Robert Stieglitz for the vacated IBF strap, only to lose it to Romanian-born Lucian Bute, on October 19, 2007. Bute held on to the title for four-and-a-half years and nine defenses, which included wins against former champions William Joppy and Glen Johnson.
Stieglitz did capture Calzaghe’s former WBO belt and had two stints as champion, first making six defenses before losing to Abraham. He regained the title from and then again lost it to Abraham in their trilogy. Having compiled a string of five defenses, Abraham’s time as champion came to an end on April 9, 2016, when he lost to 33-0 Gilberto Ramirez, who was nine years younger and five inches taller. Ramirez would defend the title five times.
Both Kessler and Froch quickly regrouped in the aftermath of the Super Six. Froch ended Bute’s reign as IBF champion in May of 2012. Two knockout wins led to Kessler stopping Brian McGee for the WBA regular title in December 2012. Froch and Kessler met in a rematch on May 25, 2013, with Froch getting revenge via unanimous decision to unify the IBF and WBA belts. This would prove to be four-time world champion Kessler’s last bout. Froch, now a three-time world champion, had two fights with rising contender George Groves, knocking him out both times, before retiring himself in 2014.
After eight months of rest following the tournament, Ward’s first defense came against Chad Dawson, then the light heavyweight champion, who moved down in weight. Showing his superiority, Ward decked him three times throughout their bout en route to an 11th-round stoppage victory. Ward made one more defense against Edwin Rodriguez then entered into an extended ring absence, as he battled to separate himself from his promoter.
Just like Jones Jr. and Calzaghe before him, Ward was lured by bigger challenges at light heavyweight. A five-fight run at 175 pounds culminated in Ward becoming the unified WBA/IBF/WBO champion, from back-to-back wins against previously unbeaten Sergey Kovalev. He then retired undefeated in 2017, at 32-0 and considered the pound-for-pound best.
With Froch’s retirement, another Englishman, James DeGale, picked up the IBF belt with a points defeat of Super Six participant Andre Dirrell in May of 2015. The win cemented him as Britain’s first Olympic gold medalist to win a world title. Sweden’s Badou Jack won the WBC belt from Andre’s brother, Anthony, one month earlier. Both made two defenses of their belts, one each against Bute, before meeting in an IBF/WBC unification on January 14, 2017. They both hit the canvas and the bout was declared a draw. DeGale was subsequently upset at home in London by 50-1 underdog Caleb Truax that December. Though, in a closely contested rematch, DeGale regained the belt in April 2018.
Froch’s now vacated WBA belt changed hands three times before Britain’s Callum Smith knocked out Groves for the title, on September 28, 2018. Because WBA champion Callum Smith also held the WBC’s Diamond belt, that meant that the regular WBA title was up for grabs, traveling from Italy to Germany then into the hands of England’s Rocky Fielding.
Between 2017 and 2019, champions Jack, DeGale and “Zurdo” Ramirez all vacated their titles. Jack and Ramirez headed north to 175 pounds, while DeGale sought mega bouts that never materialized.
David Benvidez began a promising campaign as WBC titlist, capturing the vacant belt against Romanian Ronald Gavril in September 2017, followed by a successful first defense in a rematch. However, his career was soon sidelined by a failed drug test and promotional squabbles.
Anthony Dirrell, who previously held the WBC belt for eight months defeating Sakio Bika for it in 2014 then losing to Jack, stepped in to regain the vacant title with a technical decision win against Turkey’s Avni Yildrim, on February 23, 2019. Benavidez knocked out Dirrell seven months later to take back the belt, only to lose it on the scales in his next fight against Roamer Alexis Angulo.
England’s WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders moved up in weight in 2018, after failing a VADA drug test ahead of a stateside defense against Demetrius Andrade. He then returned to the ring to grab the vacant WBO 168-pound belt with a decision win against German Shefat Isufi, on May 18, 2019.
With DeGale giving up his title in search of a pot of gold, interim titlist Jose Uzcategui was elevated to full IBF champion then squared off against heralded prospect Caleb Plant on January 13, 2019. Plant dominated the bout, dropping his foe twice on his way to a decision victory.
Fresh off two wars with “GGG” Gennadiy Golovkin, Canelo Alvarez dipped his toe into the super middleweight pool, taking on Fielding in his New York debut. Held at Madison Square Garden, on December 15, 2018, Canelo pounded Fielding to the floor four times over three rounds to add the regular WBA belt to his growing collection.
Not yet ready to commit to one weight class, Canelo pursued the best challenges available in 2019, snatching the IBF middleweight belt from Danny Jacobs then packing on 15 pounds to face WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev. In a close battle, Canelo truly showed his ring intelligence, having to deal with the champion’s size and strength. Applying pressure throughout, Canelo was able to get in close in the latter half of the bout, knocking Kovalev out in round 11. With the win, Canelo made history to become the fourth Mexican to win a world title in four weight divisions and the second to win a light heavyweight world title. It was also this victory that catapulted Canelo to the top of many pundits’ pound-for-pound lists.
While Canelo was moving up and down in weight, Smith defended his WBA crown twice in 2019. It was in 2020 when Canelo set his sights on becoming the undisputed super middleweight champion, and the 27-0 Smith was first on the hit list. With his tall, muscular frame, the 6’3” Smith was thought to provide a stern test for Alvarez, who was seven inches shorter than the Englishman. With a near shutout victory on December 19, 2020, Canelo became the unified WBA/WBC champion, as the WBC sanctioned the bout for their vacant title as well. A humdrum WBC mandatory defense followed, as Canelo ran through Yildrim in three frames on February 21, 2021.
By the time the 30-0 Saunders met Canelo, he had defended his WBO strap twice. On May 8, 2021, their tussle marked the first time since Calzaghe when the winner would hold three 168-pound title belts. This time, it was thought that Saunders’ tricky style would test Canelo. Saunders performed well enough to win three rounds on one scorecard, and two on the others. However, Canelo’s precision and power ended the bout when a well-placed uppercut fractured Saunders’ right eye socket and cheekbone. He did not come out of his corner for the ninth round, resulting in a TKO win for the Mexican, now the WBC/WBA/WBO world champion.
As Canelo was collecting belts, Plant made three defenses, defeating Mike Lee and former WBA interim titlist Vincent Feigenbutz by knockout, as well as former IBF title holder Caleb Truax on points this past January.
