Canelo Álvarez Is Undisputed (Patreon)

By Sam (@LiberationistMA)

The weekend of November 6, 2021, was both exciting and overwhelming for fight fans. Not only was there UFC 268, a consequential card that featured two title fights and various other matches with title implications, but there was also the super-middleweight unification boxing bout between Saúl 'Canelo' Álvarez vs. Caleb Plant.

Despite being the consensus pound-for-pound best and a four-division world champion, Álvarez said, "This is the most important fight of my career" because it would make him the first undisputed super-middleweight champion and the first Mexican to do it. Plant was coming into this bout as an undefeated champion, having never been dropped in his previous 21 victories. As has been the narrative for most of Álvarez's recent fights, Canelo was facing a test in the bigger man, and Plant was facing his biggest challenge period.

Yet perhaps due to some bad blood in the build-up, highlighted by an onstage scuffle during their first press conference, Álvarez started the fight with more aggression than usual. Canelo stalked Plant, backing him up and drawing out his jabs. Plant, as expected, threw more volume, but Canelo was able to pin Plant against the ropes and land heavy body shots.

Canelo kept his guard high, but rather than keeping them static, he used his gloves to deflect and parry Plant's punches, setting him up for the double-left attack: hook to the body, hook to the head. Plant stuck to his game plan and evaded while jabbing and firing quick combinations when the opportunities presented themselves. However, with the combination of being on the move and Álvarez keeping a tight defense, there was little damage and, most importantly, little to earn the pound-for-pound king's respect.

Canelo invested to the body, but unfortunately for Plant, every one of his punches also paid dividends for Canelo. The more that punches bounced off of Canelo's gloves, the more information he gathered. As Plant rolled with the punches, the more he ducked onto Canelo's hooks to the body. When Plant turned away, Canelo met him with a right overhand.

Plant found himself against the ropes in every round. Since Plant relied on the Philly shell and shoulder rolls for defense, Canelo, the crafty veteran, used his lead hand to either pin Plant's head against the ropes or Plant's arm against his body, opening him up for a right uppercut or overhand.

Plant for his part stood in the pocket with Canelo, so long as it was in the middle of the ring with space to back away. But after Canelo gathered enough information on Plant's habits, Canelo dropped his hands and relied on his head movement to avoid Plant's punches while loading up his own power shots. The combination of shifting his weight away from Plant's strikes only to rebound back into a strike of his own is what gave Canelo's later shots that extra power. Canelo, at his core, is an aggressive counterpuncher.

Eventually, Canelo had Plant ducking away from his feints, which drew Plant onto Canelo's hooks and uppercuts. When Plant misjudged what he thought was a left hook to the body by lowering his defense, Canelo leaped into a left hook to the head. As Plant ducked away from what he thought was another hook to the head, Canelo met Plant with a vicious uppercut. Plant went down for the first time in his career.

Plant got up before the 10-count and, without hesitation, told the referee, Russell Mora, that he wanted to continue. However, the end was academic as Canelo swarmed for the finish. The end came at 65 seconds of the 11th round, and Saúl' Canelo' Álvarez made history once again by becoming the first undisputed super-middleweight champion. Even more remarkable, this was Canelo's fourth title fight in 11 months, cleaning out an ultra-competitive division in less than a year.

Perhaps now the question should no longer be about where Canelo is among today's pound-for-pound best but where he stands among the all-time greats. And since the UFC also had one of their biggest PPVs for the year on the same day, perhaps another pressing question is: when will UFC champions get paid like boxing champions?