Canelo’s Legacy Continues to Grow With his Historic Knockout Victory Over Caleb Plant

By Anthony “Stacks” Saldaña

Saturday night inside of electric MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (57-1-2, 38 KOs) became the first ever Undisputed Super Middleweight Champion of the world and the only Mexican undisputed champion in the history of the sport with his victory over the formerly Undefeated IBF Champion Caleb “Sweet Hands” Plant (21-1, 12 KOs). Plant started quick using his jab to control the distance as Canelo, like a chess master slowly calculated his next moves. By the third round Canelo had began cutting off the ring, using his effective aggression and power to slowly break down the IBF Champion Plant. Canelo continued his dominance throughout the fight as the pro-Canelo crowd chanted “Mexico Mexico” and knew it was only a matter of time before the four division champ would finish off his opponent. It was in the 11th round when with a vicious left hook followed by an even more brutal right uppercut Canelo dropped Plant. Although Plant beat the count, he never fully recovered from the onslaught of punishment he had taken. With wobbly legs, Plant attempted to fight back but Canelo smelled blood. He finished off plant in with a bombardment of punches that dropped Plant again as referee Russell Mora waived the fight off at the 45 second mark of the 11th round. After the fight Canelo stated. “It hasn’t been easy to get to this point. With your support, my family and my team, we got very far. This is for everybody, especially for Mexico. I have respect for Caleb Plant. He is a very difficult fighter and has a lot of ability. I definitely respect him. We are men at the end of the day,” Alvarez said. “He wanted to still fight and compete but, of course, there is no shame. He told me he’s sorry about the motherfucker incident and he didn’t mean it like that. I told him everything is OK and to keep going”

Canelo Stops Caleb Plant to become only the 6th undisputed champion in boxing history

In the Co-main event Anthony “The Dog” Dirrell (34-2-2, 24 KOs) battled Marcos “Madman” Hernandez (15-5-2, 3 KOs) who fought diligently until the 4th round when Dirrell landed a perfect right uppercut to floor and end the night for Hernandez in their Super Middleweight matchup inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena. After the bout Dirrell stated “I’m happy to be on the Canelo card, happy to fight at the MGM and even more happy to come away with this victory” With the victory Dirrell has now put himself in position to put himself back into championship contention.

Anthony Dirrell celebrates his knockout victory over Marcos Hernandez

Also on the card former WBC Bantamweight Champion Rey Vargas (35-0, 22 KOs) Came away with a unanimous decision victory over Leonardo Baez (21-5, 12 KOs) in a very lack luster fight. Vargas who is coming off a two year lay-off was the busier fighter, who used his reach and awkwardness to out box Baez over th 10 round fight. Judges Eric Cheek, Glenn Feldman and David Sutherland scored the fight 100-90 x2 and 99-91 in favor of Vargas.

Rey Vargas gets a Unanimous decision victory over Leonardo Baez

And to open up the PPV Elvis Rodriguez (12-1-1, 11 KOs) stopped the formerly undefeated Juan Pablo Romero (14-1, 9 KOs) Mexico’s Romero looked to be out boxing Rodriguez in the early rounds, but Rodriguez dropped Romero once in the 4th and again in the 5th before the fight was stopped. Rodriguez cracked Romero with a counter left hand in an exchange that laid Romero flat on his back in the fifth round. Romero reached a sitting position, but he couldn’t before beat the count as referee Robert Hoyle reached the count of 10 with one second to go in the round.