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Three down and one to go for Canelo Alvarez—and the one that’s left doesn’t have plans to go anywhere else.
The sport’s pound-for-pound king unified three titles at super middleweight after leaving Billy Joe Saunders unable to continue after eight rounds Saturday evening, live on DAZN from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Alvarez (55-1-2, 37KOs) entered the night as the reigning WBC/WBA titlist, adding Saunders’ WBO belt to his collection.
With the win, Alvarez now becomes the division’s first three-belt champion since Joe Calzaghe held those same three titles following his Nov. 2007 win over Mikkel Kessler. The goal for the four-division champion from Guadalajara is to become the division’s first-ever undisputed champion, leaving Caleb Plant (21-0, 12KOs) as the last piece to that puzzle.
Plant defended his belt for the third time following a 12-round shutout over Caleb Plant this past January, since fully recovering from a hand injury suffered in the fight.
The unbeaten boxer from Las Vegas by way of Ashland City, Tennessee expressed his willingness to return to the ring this September while interviewed during a May 1 Fox Sports Pay-Per-View event from Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. Plant remained an interested observer from afar (mainly for familial reasons) for Saturday’s three-belt showdown in Texas, not particularly keen on the narrative being floated that he plans to avoid a showdown with Alvarez.
“You can’t break a poor boy’s chin, that’s warrior’s code,” Planted noted via social media after the win. “There are things I fear but I put it on my last breath and soul that men aren’t one of them.”
Saturday’s fight marked Alvarez’s last of a two-fight deal with promoter Eddie Hearn, though repeatedly expressing a willingness to maintain that working relationship moving forward. At present time, the Mexican superstar is not contractually bound to any network, with the win over Saunders (30-1, 14KOs) marking his sixth straight on DAZN. The hope on the side of the sports streaming network is to keep the fight on that side of the street, while Premier Boxing Champions (PBC)—under whose banner Plant has fought since its inception in 2015—would prefer to test the PPV market for such a fight.
Plant remains uncommitted for his next fight, having repeatedly stated in the past that he would love to first undisputed champion ever at super middleweight. With Alvarez celebrating his latest win, Plant’s team is ready to meet them at the negotiating table at the earliest possible convenience.
“He wants next,” was the simple message offered by PBC post-fight.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox