Canelo Alvarez-Caleb Plant news conference turns violent amid cheating accusations
Fight promotions are littered with obviously staged conflicts to ramp up interest.
This does not look like that.
Canelo Alvarez and Caleb Plant met face-to-face in a news conference on Tuesday to promote their Nov. 6 unification fight for the super middleweight championship. Things got violent.
The two exchanged some not-safe-for-work language as they faced off for the cameras. Alvarez then shoved Plant, sending him reeling. Plant responded with a left hook that Alvarez dodged, and it was on. The pair exchanged blows before order resumed.
Heated face off here before the #CaneloPlant press conference 🤯😳
Streaming live: https://t.co/mIPZRjJbFo pic.twitter.com/7WXH6hAQu6— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) September 21, 2021
The altercation left Plant with a gash under his right eye.
Caleb Plant has suffered a serious cut as a result of his brawl with Canelo Alvarez at the start of their press conference… pic.twitter.com/e7oopSAH8u
— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) September 21, 2021
Plant told TMZ that he didn't anticipate the cut forcing the fight to be postponed.
"Nothing I need surgery for or anything like that," Plant said, per TMZ. "It's just a little scratch."
'He's talking about my mom'
After the dust settled, Alvarez revealed what set him off. He told Showtime's "Morning Kombat" that he interpreted Plant calling him a motherf***er as a direct insult to his mother.
.@Canelo keeps it 💯@lthomasnews & @BCampbell caught up with the champ after today's #CaneloPlant presser: https://t.co/Dwm7fG9JX3 pic.twitter.com/lkdHK0B2g9
— Morning Kombat (@morningkombat) September 21, 2021
"He's talking about my mom," Alvarez said. "He said, 'you motherf***er.' So you passed a line right there. That's why I pushed him and he came back with a left hook."
Alvarez added: "He's an insecure person."
Did cheating accusation fuel fisticuffs?
Prior to Plant's perceived insult of Alvarez's mother, he lobbed scathing cheating accusations at the universally recognized pound-for-pound king.
Plant delivered an unfiltered Twitter rant targeting Alvarez after Oscar Valdez tested positive for a banned substance. Valdez and Alvarez both train under 2019 BBWA Trainer of the Year Eddy Reynoso, and Alvarez has his own history with banned substances, having tested positive for Clenbuterol in 2018. He blamed the positive test on eating tainted meat.
Plant let loose on Alvarez on Sept. 2 in response to Valdez's test in a multi-post Twitter tirade. Be warned again. The language below is definitely not safe for work.
Na @CANELOTEAM and @Canelo deserve BITCH of the year! All of them are suspect🖕🏻everything out of that camp is intentional. They have the knowledge and experience to know better and the resources to have the best of the best in whatever they want but 🌮or🥩or some🍵is the reason. https://t.co/nnGYMCqAwG
— CalebPlant (@SweetHandsPlant) September 3, 2021
Get the fuck outta here… people don’t take this stuff out of confidence, they take it out of FEAR! They don’t wanna let their NUTS HANG so they take shit that’ll make them shrink.
— CalebPlant (@SweetHandsPlant) September 3, 2021
I said what I said and I stand by it so fuck whoever don’t like it. The people INNNNN the sport know what’s up but the ones who don’t speak up are the same ones who cheat just like them.
— CalebPlant (@SweetHandsPlant) September 3, 2021
It’s almost seems frowned upon to even speak up on this stuff in boxing but idgaf. There’s a whole other world out there when it comes to banned substances that people in the fight game don’t wanna speak up about but I could care less. There’s no room it.
— CalebPlant (@SweetHandsPlant) September 3, 2021
Plant's accusation seemed enough to put November's highly anticipated fight at risk. But the fight remains on, scheduled for Nov. 6 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 KOs) will pit his WBC, WBA, and WBO super middleweight titles against Plant's (21-0, 12 KOs) IBF title, with the winner walking away as the undisputed champion at 168 pounds.
That is, if they don't end up settling things in the street before hand.