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WBC and WBA titleholder Canelo Alvarez faced and defeated Billy Joe Saunders by TKO on Saturday night for the WBO belt. With three of the four recognized boxing world championships to his name, the next course of action for Alvarez is quite obvious - a title unification bout with IBF champion Caleb Plant.
According to Caleb Plant, the fight is likely to happen sometime in September.
After defending his IBF title for the third time against Caleb Truax in January this year, Plant told ESPN Deportes that if Canelo Alvarez was successful in defeating Billy Joe Saunders, he could see the fight happening in September.
"First (Canelo) has to beat Billy Joe Saunders in May. If he can get past him and get the belt, hopefully we can fight in September and give the fans what they want. It would be a historic night that will leave us as the first undisputed champion in the history of the super middleweights and do you know who it will be? Caleb Plant," Caleb Plant said.
Beating Billy Joe Saunders in their May 8 clash at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas and adding the WBO title to his collection, Canelo Alvarez also confirmed that Caleb Plant was indeed his next target.
Eddie Hearn shares the reasons why Canelo Alvarez vs. Caleb Plant might not happen
While Canelo Alvarez vs. Caleb Plant is the inevitable matchup, now that the former has gone through Billy Joe Saunders, there are only a couple of things that stand in the way of that happening.
English sports promoter Eddie Hearn spoke to CBS Sports about possible reasons that could stop the fight from happening ahead of Canelo Alvarez's fight with Saunders on Saturday night.
"Politics, maybe. Or networks. It shouldn't do. This is one of the things that's so bad about boxing. Here we were able to make two champions for a unification fight. The winner of this fight could fight Caleb Plant for the undisputed. That should be a natural fight for boxing. That's sometimes where boxing kicks itself in its teeth, by not making the obvious fight. I'm pretty confident Caleb Plant would want a shot at this fight. Certainly, the winner of Saturday night is going to be the top dog in the 168-pound division," Eddie Hearn said.
However, with both boxers seemingly keen to make it happen, the fight is likely to be booked soon for the second half of the year.
Canelo Alvarez told CBS Sports that it was his personal goal to unify all four titles at 168 pounds by fighting Caleb Plant as the last champion and make history while at it.
