Any fight that Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez is involved in is significant as the Mexican continues to sit at the top of the pound-for-pound rankings, but the fan favourite can make history on Saturday night when he takes on Caleb Plant.
The two champions were expected to fight in September, but neither camp could agree to a unification bout. Two months and a heated press conference later, the two fighters are days away from locking horns in what could be one of the biggest fights of the year.
Alvarez will defend his WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles, while Plant aims to add those to his IBF strap this weekend. The winner will be crowned the undisputed champion at 168lbs, and it is the first time the weight class will have an undisputed champ in the four-belt era.
Alvarez, now 31, is currently on a seven-fight win streak, and he will be confident of adding another belt to his vast collection.
Saul Alvarez - 59 fights, 56 wins (38KOs), 1 defeat, 2 draws
Caleb Planet - 21 fights, 12 wins (12KOs)
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Saturday's bout will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Alvarez has fought in Vegas on 12 occasions, while Plant will fight in the "Fight capital of the world" for the fifth time.
Ring walks for the main event should start at 4am GMT on Sunday morning, which is 12am Eastern Time. That could change, of course, due to the length of the undercard fights.
Andre Dirrell vs Marcos Hernandez
Rey Vargas vs Leonardo Baez
Elvis Rodriguez vs Juan Pablo Romero
Jose Manuel Gomez vs Jose Antonio Meza
Joselito Velazquez vs Gilberto Mendoza
Alvarez is the overwhelming favourite for Saturday's bout at 1/12. Should punters fancy an upset, Plant is available at 7/1 as he tries to extend his unbeaten record to 22 fights.
The potential value pick is to back the fight to last less than 6.5 rounds. Those who want to take more of a risk can back under 4.5 total rounds at 4/1, but at 2/1, there's still some decent value to be had.
Alvarez should and is very likely to get the job done this weekend and he seems determined to punish Plant following their altercation at their pre-fight press conference.
Plant and Canelo swung punches at one another and had to be separated during their first face-off, with the latter claiming the American made personal insults towards his family.
Plant was left with a cut to his face and Alvarez says he plans to get his rival out of the ring before the eighth round.
Sadly for Plant, what Alvarez says he will do, normally comes true. When stepping up to super-middleweight, he vowed to unify the division, and he has made light work of the champions so far.
He dominated Callum Smith in December last year to take his WBA strap before he outclassed Avni Yildirim in February. In May, Alvarez broke Billy Joe Saunders' eye socket to claim the WBO title, and he should prove too powerful for Plant on Saturday evening.
At 29, Plant has already proven his worth as a world champion after making three successful defences of his title.
Plant beat Jose Uzcategui to win the title in January 2019 and he has since outclassed Mike Lee, Vincent Feigenbutz and Caleb Truax.
He has shown so far in his career that he can fight on both the front and back foot, while his 12 wins inside the distance prove he carries serious power.
Plant is one of America's best fighters, but that might not be enough for him this weekend when he takes on the biggest name in the sport.
His win over Truax is his most high-profile success to date, but Alvarez's CV is leagues above that, and he is still only 31.
Since turning professional as a teenager, Alvarez has beaten the likes of Shane Mosley, Austin Trout, Erislandy Lara, James Kirkland, Miguel Cotto, Amir Khan, Liam Smith, Gennady Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs and Sergey Kovalev.
His win against Kovalev was at light-heavyweight, and he still recorded a knockout victory, so Saturday's bout should be routine for someone of his ilk.
It should be a matter of when not if Alvarez can win and a stoppage inside the six rounds looks the way to go.
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