During this media interview with Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn — ahead of this weekend’s Canelo Alvarez vs Avni Yildirim fight in Miami — Hearn fields questions about the importance of this fight, exposing Canelo to different territories, and why he doesn’t think Caleb Plant has much of a chance to beat Canelo if they meet later in the year.
“Billy Joe Saunders for a long time has said he will beat Canelo Alvarez,” Hearn said. “He has the style to beat him. I’ll tell you one thing, I think if there’s anyone in the division that will beat or could beat Canelo, it’s Billy Joe Saunders — because he has the style and the movement and he has something different in his head. No fear. He can come out and he boxes and he moves and he flows, you know.
“Other fighters come out (tense). Same with Yildirim. That’s why this will be a good fight because Yildirim — no fear. He’ll come out, take his time, two or three rounds and then Joel Diaz will say to him ‘right, now’s your chance, go for it.’ And he’ll let his hands go. But that’s very dangerous, but it’s exciting.
“I think (Saunders) is an underdog in the fight (against Canelo) but he may be a guy who has a better chance than anybody to beat him, because he’s a bit crazy and he won’t fear and he’s slick…We keep saying Canelo has struggled against slick fighters, but this is when he wasn’t as good as he is now. So people talk about the Lara fight, the Floyd Mayweather fight, the Trout fight, but he was 40% of the fighter that he is now.
“But I do believe the Billy Joe Saunders fight is massive…(Caleb Plant) is another good fight. You know, Caleb Plant is another exceptional fighter, he’s a great mover, has good fundamentals. Just don’t see him beating Canelo Alvarez. I don’t…(Plant) has a chance because he’s a world class fighter, he’s elite, he’s a brilliant fighter. So always a chance something’s got to go wrong, you know what I mean? So Canelo’s got to perform badly, prepare badly, maybe have some problems outside the ring. I don’t know, something. Like if you get the best Canelo Alvarez against the best Caleb Plant, Canelo wins ten times out of ten.”
