Unless your name is “Floyd Mayweather Jr.”, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is where unbeaten boxing records go to die. (As opposed to Canelo’s dinner plate, which is where steaks of questionable provenance go to die, but that’s neither here nor there.)
Caleb Plant, you may have immediately deduced, is not Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Austin Trout, Liam Smith, Gennady Golovkin, Callum Smith and, most recently, Billy Joe Saunders — all scalps on Alvarez’s “and 0” wall. Since stepping up to the 168-pound division and beating Smith in December, Alvarez has been collecting belts in the super middleweight division the way your kid brother used to collect Pokemon cards … and the way your older brother in his 40s started collecting baseball cards again, for some reason.
First Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 KOs) grabbed Smith’s WBA and the vacant WBC straps with a unanimous decision victory, then snagged the WBO belt by stopping Saunders in May.
The final piece of 168-pound hardware Alvarez is looking to add to his collection, the IBF belt, belongs to Plant (21-0, 12 KOs). The two are set to square off Saturday at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and when it’s over, we’ll have an undisputed super middleweight champ. Unless boxing goes full boxing (always a possibility).
Big Price Lures Big Action
The heavyweight frenzy of Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder aside, Alvarez is the biggest draw the books can get for a fight under Marquess of Queensbury rules. And Nick Kalikas, risk supervisor at Circa Sports, expects more of the same this weekend.
When Circa Sports opened the action Oct. 22, Alvarez was a -1000 favorite, with Plant +695 on the buyback.
“We’ve got a lot of action. Initially, we ended up getting max bets coming in on Plant at that underdog price — and a few requests for over the limit as well,” Kalikas said.
It was enough for Kalikas to drop the odds to -825/+600, where the line remained as of Thursday afternoon. Over at The SuperBook, it’s -900/+600, while PointsBet USA lines it at -1250/+700. DraftKings has it -1000/+600.
Boxing Betting: Props & Parlays
All four sportsbooks have posted several props on the title-unification bout. Specific to Circa, Plant to win by decision is +1120, while he’s +1475 to prevail by knockout, TKO, or DQ. Alvarez is +250 and -175, respectively, to those props. The draw comes in at +2200, while the Over/Under rounds prop is at 9.5 (Over -120/Under +100).
One spot where the champ is getting hit is in parlays, with Alvarez/Kamaru Usman (-290 vs. Colby Covington in UFC 268) a popular play.
“We’re expecting Canelo to win the fight, but Plant’s a very respected opponent. He’s going to draw public action because he’s such a big dog,” Kalikas said.
“People are going to be tempted to bet that price tag on such a legitimate contender. People are parlaying Alvarez left and right at this big price. They won’t hesitate to throw that big number into parlays.”
