Notebook: Canelo-Plant a done deal for undisputed super middleweight title
Full Pacquiao-Ugas coverage; Joshua-Usyk U.S. broadcaster
After pound-for-pound king Canelo Alvarez stopped Billy Joe Saunders in the eighth round to unify three super middleweight world titles in May, he immediately made it clear who his next target was.
Alvarez wanted one man and one man only: IBF 168-pound titlist Caleb Plant in order to attempt to unify all four major belts and become the first-ever undisputed super middleweight world champion in the three- or four-belt era.
On Thursday, Alvarez got his man, as he and Plant signed to fight on Nov. 6 at a venue to be announced in Las Vegas. Alvarez and Plant both announced the expected deal fight on social media.
“This Nov. 6th we’ll put Mexican boxing on top. Going for the missing belt! #Undisputed #CaneloPlant,” Alvarez posted on his social media.
The fight will headline a Premier Boxing Champions pay-per-view card that Canelo Promotions, which was recently licensed in Nevada, will co-promote.
Alvarez, a promotional and broadcast free agent, sought his free agency to allow him to do either short-term deals or one-off fights so he could pick the best opponents and not be bogged down by promotional and network issues.
In this case, Alvarez has made a one-fight deal — no options for future bouts — with Al Haymon’s PBC, according to a source with knowledge of the agreement. The source said Alvarez also has a rematch clause in the event he loses to the underdog Plant.
Alvarez will leave DAZN, at least for one fight, after having had his last six bouts on the streaming service as part of three separate deals.
Which of PBC’s two broadcast partners — Showtime or Fox — will produce and distribute the pay-per-view event has not yet been determined, sources told Fight Freaks Unite.
“I am very excited to have this fight before me,” Alvarez said later in a statement. “I am happy because I am going to make history, and in my career that’s exactly what I want to do — leave my mark in boxing. I can’t wait to see all my fans on Nov. 6.”
Eddy Reynoso, Alvarez’s trainer and manager, was largely responsible for negotiating the deal.
“We are very happy to have been able to reach an agreement for this fight as we look to make history in becoming the first undisputed champion (in Mexican history),” Reynoso said. “We are going to train very hard, focus on growing the sport of boxing and plan to lift up the name of Mexico.”
Mexico’s Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 KOs), 31, the biggest star in boxing, will be fighting for the fourth time in 11 months, an unheard of activity level for an elite fighter these days. He routed Callum Smith in November to take his WBA title and also win the vacant WBC belt. In February, Alvarez blitzed WBC mandatory challenge Avni Yildirim in three one-sided rounds and then demolished Saunders to take his WBO title on May 8 before a United States indoor record boxing crowd of 73,126 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Alvarez, who has won world titles in four divisions, had hoped to face Plant on Sept. 18 in Las Vegas, which is Mexican Independence Day weekend. However, they could not work out some details in time to have the fight on that date. Alvarez briefly looked to a possible fight with light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol but all along really wanted to fight Plant.
When they revisited the deal, they were able to overcome the key issue. That issue was that Alvarez had insisted that if Plant got ill or injured and could not fight as scheduled he would get the same guaranteed money — $40 million — to fight a substitute opponent, but that if Alvarez got ill or injured and could not fight as scheduled, Plant, due to make a career-high $10 million, would have to wait for him to be ready.
“The language got tweaked in a way both sides could live with,” a source with knowledge of the deal told Fight Freaks Unite. “Canelo would want some protection if Plant got hurt. That isn’t an absurd position and it’s not absurd that (PBC) would want to make sure if Plant gets injured and can’t go that they don’t stuck paying Canelo a big amount of money to fight a nobody. Both sides had reasonable points to begin with. People dug in when they didn’t have to (which is why Sept. 18 didn’t work out), but they found a way to compromise on the language.”
Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn has promoted Alvarez’s last three bouts and has an excellent relationship with Alvarez and Reynoso, but Hearn will not have any formal involvement in the event, the source said.
Plant (21-0, 12 KOs), 29, a Nashville native fighting out of Las Vegas, will be making his fourth title defense but taking a huge step up in competition. He won the belt by unanimous decision from Jose Uzcategui in January 2019 and his three defenses have been against utterly overmatched Mike Lee, whom he drilled in the third round; mandatory challenger Vincent Feigenbutz, whom he stopped in the 10th round; and a shutout decision over faded former titleholder and mandatory challenger Caleb Truax on Jan. 30.
Plant elected to face Truax even though the mandatory was not yet due just to make sure he would be free to pursue an optional fight against Alvarez later in the year if the fight presented itself, which is now has.
Should Alvarez win and have a good experience working with Haymon and PBC, it could lead to other major fights against other PBC fighters, including former two-time super middleweight titleholder David Benavidez and middleweight titleholder Jermall Charlo, who eventually plans to move up to super middleweight.
Pacquiao-Ugas full coverage
I am in Las Vegas covering the Manny Pacquiao-Yordenis Ugas welterweight title fight on Saturday (Fox Sports PPV, 9 p.m. ET, $74.99) for Ring magazine’s website, RingTV.com. Stories I have written so far:
Pacquiao’s last ride? Father Time remains unbeaten but Pacquiao, one of the greatest fighters in boxing history, is doing his best to stave him off for a bit longer. But everybody, Pacquiao included, knows that his career is near the end. Many believe it will conclude, win or lose, with his 72nd fight, on Saturday, win or lose because most around him believe he will for president of the Philippines. The election is in May.
Pacquiao has been nostalgic this week knowing this may be the end his legendary 26-year career. Read that story here: https://www.ringtv.com/625861-wtih-possible-presidential-run-looming-this-could-be-the-end-of-pacquiaos-boxing-career-win-or-lose/
The real WBA champion: In January, Pacquiao was stripped if his welterweight title by the WBA for inactivity, despite the world being engulfed in the coronavirus pandemic and many titleholders being inactive. When he was stripped, Ugas was elevated from secondary titlist and given Pacquiao’s title. Pacquiao is annoyed by that and both fighters say Saturday’s fight will settle the issue of who is the real WBA champion. Please read that story here: https://www.ringtv.com/625835-manny-pacquiao-my-title-was-given-to-ugas-that-is-not-how-you-become-a-champion/
New foe, new stance: When unified welterweight world titleholder Errol Spence Jr. was ruled out of his fight with Pacquiao after being diagnosed with a torn retina during a pre-fight medical exam less than two weeks ago, Pacquiao decided to fight Ugas, who was due to fight Fabian Maidana in the co-feature but suddenly also found himself without an opponent because Maidana suffered a cut in sparring. With Pacquiao and Ugas agreeing to fight each other on short notice each must make an adjustment as Pacquiao has to go from having trained to fight a left-hander in Spence to a righty in Ugas and Ugas has to adjust from training for a right-hander in Maidana to a southpaw in Pacquiao. I wrote about that aspect of the fight here: https://www.ringtv.com/625819-bipartisan-manny-pacquiao-not-worried-about-switching-from-southpaw-spence-to-righty-ugas/
Boxing Social appearance
I joined my friends at Boxing Social from the Pacquiao-Ugas media center to talk about several boxing topics. We spoke at length about Canelo-Plant, Pacquiao-Ugas, the latest on Terence Crawford-Shawn Porter as well as Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder III and Anthony Joshua-Oleksandr Usyk. Please watch the video here:
FITE in Focus
FITE.tv is the official digital pay-per-view partner to buy the Pacquiao-Ugas event and this week I participated in the FITE in Focus show previewing the fight. Check it out here:
Quick hits
It was expected, but DAZN announced it has secured rights to unified heavyweight titleholder Anthony Joshua’s mandatory defense against undefeated former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk on Sept. 25 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. DAZN has the rights to the event in more than 170 countries and territories, including all of North America, South America, and Oceania as well as much of Europe, Asia, and Africa. It does not have rights in the United Kingdom and Ireland, where Sky Sports Box Office will show the fight, the last on its contract with Joshua.
As the WBA continues its efforts to follow through on its vow to reduce the number of world titles it hands out in each division, it has ordered flyweight titlist Artem Dalakian (20-0, 14 KOs), of Ukraine, and interim titlist Luis Concepcion (39-8, 28 KOs), of Panama, to meet in their next fight. The WBA notified both camps and gave them 30 days, until Sept. 18, to make a deal. If they don’t, a purse bid will be ordered.
Former light heavyweight title challenger Callum Johnson (19-1, 14 KOs), 36, of England, will be back in action in the co-feature of flyweight titlist Sunny Edwards' first defense against Jayson Mama on Sept. 11 at the Copper Box Arena in London, promoter Frank Warren announced. Johnson, who re-signed with Warren and had his first fight under the deal in April, will face Serbia’s Marko Nikolic (27-1, 12 KOs) in a 10-rounder. Johnson’s lone loss came by fourth-round knockout in a shootout with light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev, whom he dropped, in October 2018.
Show and tell
Any time you’re at a major fight there are always a few knick knacks for a collector to pick up, so of course that is the case this week at Pacquiao-Ugas. One of the neat things available in the media center are cans of Pacquiao-branded hydrogen-infused water. Obviously, I have some coming home with me. Here’s a picture of the can Pacquiao adorns.
Alvarez photo: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing; Pacquiao-Ugas photo: Ryan Hafey/PBC
Whatever Manny does after this fight he earned it in the ring no doubt. Is that enough to buy the PPV ? Not really yet I can understand why people will do just that, the Pac-Man has a loyal following that he got inside the ring not outside the ropes. It would be nice to see Manny sitting in the White House one day talking to the president of the U.S.A. got to love that picture if it happens.
Hope Saul wins his fight with Plant does numbers that take him away from Eddie and DAZN for good. It would be better that way, Saul got all the tune up fights post-pandemic and Eddie got his numbers and excuses for no fights on the callender bc "until Saul decides to fight......" for that reason I hope he gets his PPV numbers and moves on force Eddie to find another fighter or two to sell to his subs.
Some good fights coming up. Thankfully Pacquiao's end has come, hopefully he's leaving boxing with his health still intact. Now we just need Fury to get past Wilder asap and then onto Joshua.