Despite all the pre-fight words, Canelo Alvarez respects Caleb Plant.
Over the weekend, Alvarez scored a stoppage win vs. Plant to unify the super middleweight titles.
It marked the first time in his storied career that Alvarez has unified the belts. He entered with the WBA, WBC, WBO and Ring titles, adding the IBF belt to his waist.
While the lead-up for the two was heated, Alvarez did give Plant some words of encouragement after.
“Caleb is a good fighter,” said Canelo, who shared words of encouragement for his opponent in the ring following the fight. “I have a lot of respect for Caleb Plant. He was a difficult opponent with a lot of ability and I do respect him. We are both men at the end of the day. He wanted to fight me and still continue. I told him there’s no shame. We had a great fight tonight.”
Alvarez is now 57-1-2 in his career and has won each of his last eight fights since a draw with Gennady Golovkin.
“It hasn’t been easy to get to this point, but with your support, my family and my team we’ve gotten really far,” Álvarez told Showtime’s Jim Gray (through a translator) following the historic victory. “This is for everybody, especially for Mexico. This is another one for our team. We did it tonight.”