Bringing a fighter down in weight very rarely results in a better fight. Almost never. As for why he should chase fights at a higher weight, he doesn't have to do anything. But if he's going to fight at 168 it should be against SMW fighters, Bivol is wholly unproven at 168. As for Canelo, I just want to see him in the most competitive fights possible. Its only at LHW where we can start to imagine him actually losing whilst still being at his best. Those guys you mentioned are crap fights tbh. Might as well just take a mandatory challenge is he's going to do that.
Plant didn't back away. He agreed to every demand. https://www.espn.co.uk/boxing/story...b-plant-boxing-fight-talks-broken-sources-say
This part of the article doesn't make sense : The matter of the ring size? "Alvarez and Billy Joe Saunders battled over the distance inside the ropes"? How can you take anything this article seriously with a comment like that? The only fighter who battled over the distance inside the ropes was Saunders. Phrasing it this way is attempting to make it seem like Canelo was somehow demanding Plant agree to a ring size like Saunders did to him. 20-by-20 is standard. Saying Plant agreed to the standard 20-by-20 ring size like Canelo was making demands about the ring size is misleading. Then he claims Plant said Canelo had other "ridiculous requests" without specifying what those were. As far as the guaranteed $$ in the event that Plant gets injured, there seems to be some confusion over this aspect of the contract. There's other reports that say it was Plant who wanted guaranteed $$ in case Canelo got injured. Remember that was what we were talking about last week, that was the premise of why Plant backed out, which didn't make sense to me. If Plant is being quoted as saying that it was Canelo who wanted the guaranteed $40 from PBC in case Plant gets injured, then that makes more sense. It's a tricky situation because Canelo is dealing with PBC who he's never dealt with before. I think it's a difficult negotiation but the $40 mil guarantee in case a fighter gets injured seems to be the sticking point. I don't get why the negotiations were halted with that. If that was the number, but PBC wouldn't agree to that, then surely in the event Plant gets injured there is some figure that both sides would agree to. There should have been more of an effort to work though that in negotiations. It's just crazy that they seemed to agree with everything else but it was the guaranteed $$ for Sept 18th in case a fighter pulls out from injury, which is a pretty unlikely scenario that seems to have stopped the fight from happening. In the event of an injury and the fight being cancelled, it would be a huge disappointment and I think both sides should be able to negotiate through such a scenario. It's also important to note that the tone of all this is that Canelo's just making demands and Plant keeps agreeing to everything. Most of these so-called demands are standard contractual terms. And lets not forget that the main demand that Canelo had to agree to here is that Canelo has to fight Plant on PBC on a Fox PPV. I'm sure Canelo and his team would much prefer fighting on DAZN and with Eddie Hearn his promoter promoting the event. Canelo agreed to fight on PBC so lets not act like Plant wasn't demanding that of Canelo.
Demands, concessions, negotiations, whatever it doesn't matter. Plant said he agreed to everything and signed his contract. So it's unfair to say he's backed out.
Well Plant's promoter, PBC, apparently didn't agree to the offer. If the sticking point was in the event that either fighter gets injured in camp and has to pull out, that's just unfortunate. This is not something that should be the straw that broke the camel's back. Both sides and PBC should come back to the table this week and make it happen. In the scenario that either Canelo or Plant gets injured in camp and pulls out, I think at that point both sides have to realize that the fight would need to be rescheduled to another date. Does anyone know if it was planned on being held at Raiders stadium or was it going to be in an Arena in Vegas?
Never mind that, nothing should be the straw that breaks the camels back. Whatever it takes to make the fight. However form Plants own mouth, he said he signed and agreed to everything, so it's unfair to say he backed out when he hasn't done.
In this topic, last week, it was reported by multiple posters that Plant did not agree to terms : https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/canelos-demands-for-caleb-plant-fight-explained.671227/ Post #6: Post #9: Post #10: Post #27: It was in that topic that was indicated by multiple posters that it was Plant who did not agree to some of the demands, like that he couldn't fight anyone before fighting Canelo in the event that there's an injury in camp that causes the fight to be postponed. That is where the claim that Plant backed out came from.
By the way I just found out that it was going to be at the MGM Grand because Raiders Stadium was hosting a UNLV football game that day and T-Mobile also had an event that day. So it wouldn't be a stadium fight. For me a fight this big should be in a Stadium. If Canelo can sell out AT&T Stadium for Saunders he should be able to sell out another Stadium for Plant. So the fact that only an Arena was available in Vegas may have also caused the guaranteed $$ in the event of an injury to be a sticking point because having it in a small arena would significantly lower the gate. The problem with Stadiums in September is that unlike in May, for September football and baseball are going on so it's harder to find a stadium that could host it.
At 175 I forecast a 50/50 fight and only because Canelo is the one who has to make adjustments in the shortest time allotted. If this fight is held @168 then it swings the odds to more like 60/40 for Big Red who has to just adjust for a different opponent and no weight issues. Either way this will be a solid challenge for both guys.
The interview gives Plant's side of the story, with him saying he agreed to everything. He is promoted by PBC. If PBC did not agree to the guarantees in the event that Plant got injured in camp, then PBC backed out of the deal. It's no more unfair to say that Plant backed out than it is to claim that Canelo was making unreasonable demands like that article indicated. Like demanding a 20-by-20 ring, which is standand in Vegas, or Plant claiming that Canelo had other "ridiculous requests" without specifying what those were. So if we're going to say that it's unfair to make certain claims, then we need to apply those to Canelo as well, not just Plant. All we were getting last week were bits and pieces of rumors that were being talked about. And we have no way to know if that ESPN article is accurate or if what Plant said in the interview is the whole story. For all we know Plant didn't have much control over the decision-making process and it was PBC who backed out of the deal not wanting to put up that kind of guaranteed $$ even though it was they who are insisting on covering the fight on a Fox PPV.
None of this matters mate. I was responding to you saying he'd have fought plant but plant backed out.
Fair enough, we didn't have the whole story last week and I agree it was unfair to say that Plant (himself) backed out. But at the same time, we need to apply the same standards to Canelo and Plant. It's also unfair to say Canelo (himself) is making unreasonable demands when it's likely his team who is negotiating with PBC on his behalf and in actuality whether or not the demands are unreasonable are purely speculative.
I never said unreasonable demands, I said he agreed to every demand, which is what he said himself in the link.
