Canelo Álvarez Hopes to Unify the Belts at 168 Pounds

LAS VEGAS — Saúl Álvarez and Caleb Plant punctuated their late-September news conference in Beverly Hills the way prizefighters often do — by squaring off for a stare-down, nose to nose, each promising to beat the other down when they finally met for the undisputed super-middleweight title. That bout is scheduled for Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

For Álvarez, the 168-pound champion in the World Boxing Association, World Boxing Council and World Boxing Organization, it was a routine performance. A 31-year-old from Guadalajara, Mexico, he knew the confrontation would help hype their bout but said he preferred not to invest energy in prefight photo ops.

For Plant, the International Boxing Federation champion, the news conference stare-down was personal, as he says all of his bouts are. Álvarez, who goes by the nickname Canelo, isn’t just a competitor, but a rival.

Yet as the boxers inched closer, their trash talk increasing in volume and venom, it was Álvarez, the veteran of 59 pro bouts, who professed not to like outside-the-ring skirmishes, who responded to an insult — he says Plant called him a vulgar name — with a two-handed shove. Plant bounced back and threw a left hand. Álvarez answered with a right and left, all the blows delivered and answered in a split second.

Photos and video replays would show that the fighters had actually traded openhanded slaps. Plant’s fingertips grazed Álvarez’s cheek and temple. Álvarez connected with the ridge of his right palm and the heel of his left palm.

Even now, just before their bout, it’s still unclear how, exactly, a single swear word triggered the scuffle. Álvarez said he thought that Plant intended the gravest insult possible.

“It got out of control. I’ve never been involved in anything like that. The truth is, I don’t like it at all. I’m going to take it out on him in the ring,” Álvarez said.

Plant, for his part, said both fighters used the word. It’s audible in video of the skirmish featured in Showtime’s prefight documentary series. The voice sounds like Álvarez’s.

“It was just normal prefight banter,” Plant, who is 21-0 with 12 knockouts, said in an interview. He added: “That’s the fight game, and if people don’t like it, they can watch Little League Baseball.”

A news conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday unfolded with no such drama. Álvarez and Plant posed for photos separately, then left the stage without the customary face-off.

While it’s still unclear which of the two fighters incited the skirmish in September, the stakes for Saturday’s fight are unambiguous. Álvarez holds three world championships at 168 pounds. Plant holds one. The winner will emerge as the division’s undisputed champion.

“It’s really important for me because few fighters in history have done it. None in Latin America,” Álvarez, whose only loss was to Floyd Mayweather in 2013, said. “This is the most important fight of my career.”

Professional boxing has 17 weight classes but features only one reigning undisputed champion: Josh Taylor of Scotland, at 140 pounds.

Holding four titles simultaneously requires aligning all four major sanctioning bodies’ priorities, a nearly impossible act. After defeating Deontay Wilder last month, the W.B.C. heavyweight champion Tyson Fury made clear his desire to unify the heavyweight title in 2022 against the winner of a springtime rematch between Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk. But the W.B.C. wants Fury to defend his belt against the English heavyweight Dillian Whyte and could strip him of the title if he chooses otherwise.

Factor in the sport’s competing promoters and broadcast platforms, who typically cooperate as willingly as Democrats and Republicans in Congress, and the goal of a unified title becomes even more elusive. Bipartisan bouts happen if the stakes are high enough. Top Rank worked with Premier Boxing Champions on the two most recent Fury-Wilder fights, and the rival outfits will partner again when the welterweight champion Terence Crawford fights Shawn Porter on Nov. 20.

In this environment, Álvarez, a promotional and broadcast free agent, operates like an independent, making the fights he wants, on all sides of boxing’s promotional divides, for the money he commands. For Saturday’s bout, which will air on Showtime pay-per-view, Álvarez will gross a reported $40 million, while Plant is guaranteed $10 million.

“That’s understandable, given that Álvarez wants the biggest, legacy-defining fights available at this point in his career,” Stephen Espinoza, the president of Showtime Sports, said. “This is a legacy-defining fight for a fighter who already has a hall-of-fame résumé. Or it could be the elevation of Caleb Plant to an entirely new level of stardom.”

Álvarez, who has held world titles in four weight classes, will enter Saturday’s bout as the betting favorite and the A-side fighter. He’s a veteran whose tactics shift as opponents and situations dictate — a boxer-puncher in his 2013 win over Austin Trout, and a come-forward slugger in recent wins over Billy Joe Saunders and Callum Smith.

“I want to make history. That’s what motivates me,” Álvarez, who is 56-1-2, said. “I’m still improving, every day.”

Plant is a technical, tactical boxer who recognizes that a series of challengers, like Saunders and Smith, have tried and failed to beat Álvarez with skill and strategy. Their plans unraveled in the middle rounds, when Álvarez began landing heavy punches.

But Plant, a 29-year-old from Ashland City, Tenn., promises a different outcome. He has spent his whole career as a super-middleweight, and he will enter the ring with advantages in size and reach.

“There’s been a handful of guys who have had a good amount of success against Canelo,” Plant, a national Golden Gloves champion in 2011, said. “I’m a full-fledged super-middleweight. I possess a lot of the same skills and ring I.Q. that those guys do, but I’m 6-1 and a half.”