Quijano: Canelo cleans up super middleweight division

Caleb Plant proved to be as good as advertised. For three quarters he held his own, giving as good as he got.

But Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (57-1, 39 KOs) was undeterred as he was dead set on achieving undisputed status at the super middleweight division.

In the championship rounds, he stepped up his attack to break down a very game opponent, a proud champion in his own right.

THE FIGHT. Plant (21-1, 12KOs) was more effective in the first few rounds as he landed jabs and feinted well to set up his punches. Canelo wasn’t so active, but he landed a few solid body punches.

Plant continued his success in the third, but Canelo came alive in the fourth as he landed several hooks and right hands.

Canelo continues to turn the tide in the middle rounds as he applied the pressure.

Plant makes Canelo miss on several occasions, but is unable to capitalize and mount a sustainable offense.

In Rounds 7 and 8 , Canelo continues to land vicious body shots while Plant sporadically lands right hands, but these are too few and far between to deter Canelo.

The pattern is repeated in Rounds 8 and 9 with Canelo seemingly impervious to incoming artillery from Plant while he surges forward and applies a frenetic punching pace.

Plant is on defensive mode in the 10th, and while he is able to evade and make Canelo miss, you can see he is spent and fading fast.

In the 11th, Canelo catches Plant with a brutal left hook to the face, followed by a sneaky right uppercut that hurts Plant and knocks him down.

He staggers to his feet and Canelo follows it up with another barrage that knocks him down again. In truth, Plant never recovered from the first knockdown and the referee calls for the denouement of the fight.

CANELO. The last time we had an undisputed champion in the 168lb division was 10 years ago when the talented Andre Ward won the Super Six World Championship boxing tournament. It’s not everyday you see somebody clean up a division in less than a year.

Now, Canelo sits at the apex of the boxing world. Amazingly, he has won titles in the junior middleweight, middleweight, super middleweight and the light heavyweight divisions.

Plant was game and competitive but only for a while. Canelo demonstrated there are levels to this and that Plant had never faced a fighter of his caliber.

LAST ROUND. It’s on a good friend, lawyer Erwin Rommel “Heyboy” Heyrosa who recently celebrated his birthday. Cheers!