LAS VEGAS – Pound-for-pound king Canelo Alvarez has authored loads of vital victories in his profession on his approach to successful world titles in 4 weight courses from junior middleweight to gentle heavyweight and changing into the game’s greatest present star.
However Ring tremendous middleweight champion Alvarez, who additionally maintain the WBA, WBC and WBO titles, mentioned that defeating IBF titleholder Caleb Plant to change into the primary ever undisputed 168-pound world champion could be the best accomplishment of his storied profession thus far.
“Sure, as a result of, simply assume – 5 (male) fighters within the historical past of boxing have achieved being undisputed (within the four-belt period) and I’m going to be the sixth,” Alvarez mentioned. “I need to be the sixth. That’s the one factor on my thoughts. This combat goes to be historical past. You’re going to be witnessing one thing that you just’re going to recollect for a very long time.
“I’m excited for the combat, for being undisputed champion and for me making historical past, which is what I need. So, I’m excited however on the similar time I’m calm as a result of that is what I do, that is what I do know is a part of my life.”
Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 KOs) and Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) meet with that historical past at stake on Saturday (Showtime PPV, 9 p.m. ET, $79.99) on the MGM Grand Backyard Enviornment.
“Being the undisputed champion is large for my legacy,” Alvarez mentioned. “Not solely wouldn’t it be an honor to be the primary Latin American fighter to do it, however there’s solely a choose membership of fighters who’ve achieved this. (Coach/supervisor) Eddy (Reynoso) and I mentioned at first that the objective was to be undisputed, and now we’re one combat away.”
The winner will change into simply the sixth male boxer to totally unify a division within the four-belt period and would be a part of middleweight Bernard Hopkins (2004), middleweight Jermain Taylor (2005), junior welterweight Terence Crawford (2017), cruiserweight Oleksandr Usyk (2018) and junior welterweight Josh Taylor (2021).
“The objective is to be an all-time nice,” Alvarez mentioned. “I’m so happy with the journey I’ve taken to attain that. I’m not going to cease till I’ve tried my finest to succeed in that objective.”
Canelo Alvarez (left) is one step away from reaching undisputed standing at 168 kilos after dethroning Billy Joe Saunders. Picture by Michelle Farsi/ Matchroom
Showtime Sports activities president Stephen Espinoza, who first labored with Alvarez on 5 consecutive fights from 2013 to 2014 and has welcomed him again to Showtime for the combat with Plant, believes Alvarez is a particular fighter.
“Canelo, you understand him by now, he’s the consensus primary fighter within the sport. Turned professional at age 15. He’s by no means been down as a professional,” Espinoza mentioned. “There’s plenty of dialogue about the place he ranks among the many all-time greats of Mexican boxers. However that’s the unsuitable query. The precise query is the place he ranks among the many all-time greats from anyplace on the planet.
“Eleven of his final 12 fights have been in opposition to (reigning or former) world champions. He’s seeking to be the primary Mexican within the four-belt period to be an undisputed champ and if Canelo is profitable, he can have performed so in simply 11 months after successful his first (tremendous middleweight) title.”
In December, Alvarez toyed with Callum Smith in a one-sided determination to take his Ring and WBA titles and the vacant WBC belt. In Could, he stopped Billy Joe Saunders within the eighth spherical so as to add the WBO title to his assortment.
Earlier than a possible victory over Plant, Alvarez and coach/supervisor Eddy Reynoso are in settlement as to what Alvarez’s greatest victory has been thus far.
They each say it was his dominating unanimous determination victory over Puerto Rican legend Miguel Cotto to win the middleweight championship in November 2015 on the Mandalay Bay Occasions Middle in Las Vegas.
“I believe it was the Cotto combat. Why? As a result of after that the combat I’m extra assured within the ring,” Alvarez instructed The Ring. “I discovered plenty of issues from that combat.”
In addition to successful a title in his second weight class, Alvarez’s victory over Cotto is likely one of the greatest within the wealthy historical past of the Mexico versus Puerto Rico boxing rivalry.
“(Saturday) will likely be an important combat of Saul’s profession,” Reynoso instructed The Ring, utilizing Alvarez’s given first title. “(So far it was) Miguel Cotto, as a result of he’s a (future) Corridor of Famer. It actually simply left a mark preventing that type of class fighter and it lifted Saul to an entire different degree.”
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