Canelo Alvarez produced an incredible, brutal late-fight flurry to defeat a plucky Caleb Plant in Las Vegas and become boxing’s first undisputed super-middleweight champion.
The Mexican champ won by knockout in the 11th round of an epic fight on Sunday afternoon AEST.
Alvarez won just about every round leading up to the 11th but still Plant proved to be an awkward opponent. Alvarez needed a spectacular KO to put a stamp on what up until then had been a mediocre performance by the champ.
Mexico’s Alvarez knocked Plant down twice in the 11th; the first time with a left hook, followed up by a right uppercut.
Plant got up but was wobbly and still in a fog as Alvarez chased him around the ring. Alvarez pummelled Plant with rights and lefts to drop him for good at 1:05 of the round.
“It hasn’t been easy to get to this point, but with your support, my family, my team, we’ve gotten really far,” Alvarez said post-fight via a translator.
“This is for everybody, especially for Mexico.”
Alvarez, who came into the bout as a heavy favourite, had dubbed the fight the most important of his career. He predicted a knockout before round eight but Plant proved tough.
“My respect for Caleb Plant. He’s a very difficult fighter, he has a lot of ability,” Alvarez said.
“He was making it difficult, but Eddie told me ‘let’s go with the gameplan’ with the last two rounds and at the end I got him.
“That’s the way it had to finish. He was already very hurt and I went for the kill.”
Alvarez becomes just the sixth male fighter since the WBO began sanctioning world title fights in 1988 to hold the four boxing belts.
The 31-year-old champ added Plant’s IBF belt to his WBA, WBC and WBO titles.
Alvarez takes his place in the history books alongside Oleksandr Usyk (cruiserweight), Bernard Hopkins (middleweight), Jermain Taylor (middleweight), Terence Crawford (super-lightweight) and Josh Taylor (super-lightweight).
