By: Hans Themistode
A Canelo Alvarez win has essentially become a formality in the eyes of Timothy Bradley. The former two-division champion turned ESPN commentator will certainly tune in on November 6th, when Alvarez takes on IBF super middleweight champion, Caleb Plant.
Although Bradley respects the 29-year-old wholeheartedly, he simply doesn’t see how Plant makes it to the final bell.
“He’s going to sleep,” said Bradley to FightHype.com. “He makes too many mistakes.”
The sentiments shared by Bradley have been a constant theme the moment Alvarez vs. Plant was announced. While the Nashville, Tennessee native has defended his title against the likes of Mike Lee, Vincent Feigenbutz, and Caleb Truax, he’s yet to fight anyone even remotely close to the caliber of Alvarez.
As for the Mexican star, he’s proven that his knockout power goes well beyond the realm of just the 168-pound landscape. With stoppage victories against opponents as high as the light heavyweight division, Alvarez has shown an ability to stop much larger men. Now, with three of the four major world titles at 168 pounds wrapped around his waist, and with championship reigns across multiple weight classes throughout the course of his career, Alvarez is considered by most to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
As Bradley sits back and thinks to himself, he struggles with seeing how Plant will have his hand raised in victory. To better explain how slim Plant’s chances are come November 6th, Bradley ventured into another sport entirely to expound on his opinion.
“He’s like the street baller with all the skills in the world,” explained Bradley. “But he ain’t gonna make it to the league. He got it all, he got all the skills. He does but there’s holes that I see that he can’t do against Canelo.”
In addition to the physical attributes Bradley believes Plant is lacking, the former two-division titlist is fully convinced that when it comes to what’s between the ears, he comes up short in that department as well.
“Canelo is too smart. He don’t have the IQ to beat Canelo. It takes a guy with IQ to beat Canelo. Canelo can do it all too. He can fight you on the inside, he can fight you on the outside, he can be very defensive and counterpunch you. If you don’t have the IQ to be able to deal with that and negate all of that, you’re not going to beat him.”