By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez vs. Caleb ‘Sweethands’ Plant did roughly 800,000 pay-per-view buys on SHOWTIME final Saturday night time.
What these numbers present is that Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs) can herald glorious numbers, even when he’s dealing with a man that informal boxing followers have by no means seen or heard of earlier than. Plant was a no-name earlier than combating Canelo, but it surely didn’t matter.
If Canelo can herald these sorts of numbers in opposition to a median fighter, think about the numbers he’ll herald when he faces David Benavidez or Jermall Charlo. These guys would herald effectively over 1 million PPV buys if Canelo dared to combat them.
Only a few informal boxing followers had ever heard of Plant, largely as a result of he’d by no means fought an A-level opponent throughout his seven-year skilled profession. Plant’s greatest win of his profession was in opposition to Jose Uzcategui, and he seemed horrible in that combat.
In line with sources for Dan Rafael, the Canelo – Plant pulled in round 800K buys, that are good numbers, contemplating that the boxing public wasn’t demanding this combat.
Former IBF tremendous middleweight champion Plant (21-1, 12 KOs) wasn’t a family identify going into the combat, so mainly the numbers that pulled in doubtless have been from boxing followers that wished to see Canelo and didn’t care who he was combating.
It may have been Avni Yildirim or one of many obscure champions at 168 that Canelo beat just lately and the followers nonetheless would have bought the combat.
Hopkins says Canelo whooped Plant
“It wasn’t his greatest, he needed to determine some issues out,” stated Bernard Hopkins to Fighthype on Canelo’s efficiency in opposition to Plant.
“Plant did some good coronary heart and a few good willpower, and he did a few good fluid strikes. Canelo had some issues with the angles. It labored for Plant, however he couldn’t keep it.
“You’ve received to take a look at among the opponents in that weight division which are going to take a look at that and take some classes and see the place Canelo had his issues at and making an attempt to manifest it.
“I don’t know if it’s Jermall Charlo or any individual else in that weight division that he’s planning on combating. However Canelo did what I anticipated him to do, search and destroy.
“Canelo has no competitors proper know,” stated Hopkins when requested who can provide Alvarez issues. “I wasn’t stunned what Canelo did, and I don’t say that to down Plant. I believed he did a fantastic job.
Bernard impressed by Canelo
“I don’t assume anyone thought that Plant had a shot to beat Canelo, and I don’t assume anyone thought it was going to be an upset. He [Plant] mainly received his a** whooped.
“Do you get rewards for getting your a** whooped? I don’t assume so. I wasn’t impressed with Plant’s efficiency. Canelo did what he needed to do.
“Initially, I believed he was carrying [Plant], however ultimately, I spotted he was having issues together with his model. Plant was doing a few issues that Canelo was having issues with when he fought Floyd.
“I seen some issues that he was doing to make Canelo confused, however so far as every little thing else, I noticed a workman’s job that he was beating him down spherical by spherical.
“The largest achievement was Canelo turned the undisputed champion within the shortest folks of time,” stated Hopkins about Canelo.
It’s straightforward for fashionable fighters like Canelo that convey some huge cash to the desk for his or her opponents to get champions to be keen to combat him.
Hopkins didn’t level out the plain by mentioning that while you convey within the sort of cash that Canelo does, in fact, you’re going to have the ability to seize titles shortly, particularly while you’re going after weak champions.
Come on, we didn’t see Canelo making an attempt to change into the undisputed champion when Benavidez held the WBC 168-lb title. If Canelo goes as much as 175 and makes an attempt to repeat his feat from the 168-lb division by making an attempt to change into undisputed, we’ll see if he loved the identical success.
