Caleb Plant could not help but laugh, virtually speaking, when he heard the news that Canelo Alvarez would not be fighting on Mexican Independence weekend for the third year in a row.
Alvarez, the WBO/WBA/WBC 168-pound titleholder, was projected to face Plant, the IBF titleholder, in a unification bout on Sept. 18, the annual date reserved for Alvarez, but the parties failed to reach a deal. Alvarez then tried to negotiate a fight with WBA light heavyweight titleholder Dmitry Bivol, but he could not consummate a deal in time, prompting Eddie Hearn, Alvarez’s promoter, to announce that the Mexican superstar would be looking to fight in November instead.
“For the 3rd year in a row?” Plant wrote on his Facebook profile. “For a date that’s reserved for him?… at what point is it NOT everyone else’s fault and at what point does it fall on the hands of him and his team? You mean every opponent they’ve tried to book for the last 3 years is just ducking? […] chiLLLLLL”
Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) was responding to the notion that he was at fault for not making the fight between him and Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 KOs) happen.
Alvarez would no doubt counter that his reasons for moving off the coveted weekend were legitimate. In 2019, he postponed the annual date citing difficulty finding the proper opponent. (He ended up fighting later that November, against Sergey Kovalev, in a light heavyweight title bout). He did not fight in September the following year due to the fact that he was involved in a nasty lawsuit with his former promoter Golden Boy, during, no less, a global pandemic.
Alvarez last fought on Mexican Independence weekend in 2018, a rematch against Gennadiy Golovkin, which he won by majority decision.
Recently, Plant went on the record on why the fight with Alvarez fell through. He told ESPN that Alvarez, who was set to receive a career-high $40 million guarantee, wanted the same purse for a replacement opponent, in the case that Plant had to bow out due to injury or sickness, a risk that Plant’s handler and Premier Boxing Champions chief Al Haymon was presumably not willing to take on.
Alvarez’s side have yet to comment publicly on those claims.
Plant also recently posted on his Instagram story a photo of him holding three mouthpieces with the word “Undisputed” across them and the caption, “You don’t get these made for no reason.”