Canelo Alvarez vs Caleb Plant fight preview

Canelo Alvarez is the #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world today, in the opinion of many, and perhaps even a lot of BetOnline customers. But very rarely is a fighter invincible; it just depends on who can come along and put together the right formula.

Caleb Plant, the IBF super middleweight champion, believes he's the guy who can do it, and he'll have a chance to do it on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas. We're not sure when they'll get things underway, but it will be on DAZN and it will be sometime after 11 PM ET.

Plant is 21-0 with 12 KO's and hails from Ashland City, TN. He has not been in with a lot of world-class opposition, but if you look at him, you will see that he has plenty of skills, in a different way than Alvarez's last opponent, Billy Joe Saunders. Plant is pretty slick, and he comes to the table with a lot of hand speed.

He also has a height advantage of about four inches and a three-inch reach advantage. But none of that is surprising for someone like Canelo, who has gradually moved up to fighting bigger guys.

Canelo (56-1-2, 38 KO's, with the only loss to Floyd Mayweather) says he's seen a style like Plant's before, and he knows what to do with it. And indeed Plant appears to - at the risk of sounding sacrilegious here - be influenced by Roy Jones Jr. He likes to throw the hook off the jab, and from odd angles, and he keeps that left hand pretty low.

But while he's fast, he's certainly not as fast as Jones was. His style may present a problem for Canelo to figure out for a few rounds, but he has to have more in his repertoire to win this on points.

And we mention that because Plant is not known as a knockout puncher, with his twelve knockouts. We doubt he's even going into this fight with the idea of stopping Alvarez.

This bout will be for all the belts at 168 pounds - WBO, WBA, WBC and IBF. In the boxing betting odds posted at BetOnline, Canelo is a big favorite:

Canelo Alvarez -900
Caleb Plant      +600

Over 9.5 Rounds -115
Under 9.5 Rounds -105

Ultimately, we have to conclude that Plant's only real way of beating Canelo isn't going to be overpowering him, but basically going in there and outboxing and outfoxing him for twelve rounds. If he beat Alvarez on points, that would be one thing. But to stop him, THAT would be a little shocking.

But we'd like to get a better price on the favorite, right? So we can turn to the props to make that happen. First of all, the opinion here is that Plant is at least cagey enough to give Canelo something he has to figure out for two or three rounds. So we wouldn't venture down the road of round betting or group betting for the first several rounds.

But if we look at "method of victory," that may give us someplace to go. And for us, that would make it between Alvarez inside the distance (whether it's by KO, TKO or disqualification) or by decision.

Then you can take your pick. The "KO" route pays -190. The "decision" route pays +240. If you believe Canelo is going to take care of business and knock out Plant, you're laying almost 2-1.

But if you think he can do it before the midway point of the tenth round (it is scheduled for 12), perhaps your best option is to simply go with the total rounds that are posted.

That would give you an almost even money situation. You just have to hope that Plant isn't able to survive until very deep in the fight.

We give the undefeated Tennessean a lot of credit, but at the same time I'm not sure he can withstand a sustained offensive attack if that's what Canelo chooses to bring. Since I believe he'll "lay the foundation" with some body punching, that would help Alvarez's cause (and ours too).

Plant's never lost. And he's had a long amateur career that included a National Golden Gloves title. But I'm not sure his durability has been tested as a pro, not to the extent it will be here. His movement and work rate won't be sustainable for a long enough period to make him viable. And he doesn't have airtight defense, so he'll get nailed.

And so unless he proves to have a chin of iron, perhaps the price of -105 on the "under" fits into our plan.

BetOnline has the best boxing odds, and lots of them...... You can literally pick any way this fight is going to end, or whether it's going to end inside 12 rounds at all..... And remember that you can make your deposits in more ways than ever. That includes Bitcoin and altcoins that they have now made available. It's amazing!