- Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and
Caleb Plant got stuck into it Tuesday at aboxing press conference. - The two fighters compete in November, but were happy to throw hands two months early.
- Plant was left with a double cut on his face.
Saul "Canelo" Alvarez shoved, slapped, and made Caleb Plant bleed just two months before their super middleweight world championship bout.
It all went down at a boxing press conference Tuesday in Beverly Hills, California, 300 miles from Las Vegas, where their title fight will take place in November.
As is customary when big fights are announced, the two boxers went face-to-face for the media ahead of the event.
They exchanged words on the dais but when the American boxer Plant called Alvarez "motherfucker," Alvarez took it upon himself to make his opponent pay.
Pushing and shoving is commonplace in combat
And Plant wasn't ready to just let Alvarez get away with it.
So the 29-year-old, who holds the IBF title at 168-pounds, closed the distance on Alvarez and took a swing at the WBA, WBC, and WBO champion with an open palm.
Alvarez gave an expert demonstration in pull-counter tactics as he shifted away from Plant's strike and attacked the American with two slaps of his own.
One of those strikes swiped the sunglasses off of Plant's face, which caused a double laceration to quickly appear on his face.
Up until that point, security was nowhere to be seen, but guards quickly stepped in to separate the fighters, and the conference eventually continued.
Watch the scuffle right here:
-SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) September 21, 2021
"He started talking a lot of things," Alvarez told ESPN. "I answered.
"Then the bad thing he said, 'You motherfucker.' You can say whatever you want to me, but not to my mother. My mother is not here."
Plant was confused why Alvarez would take so much offense to that word, considering the champion himself called Demetrius Andrade the same thing a few months earlier.
"Wasn't he saying that?" Plant said, according to ESPN.
"But now, all of a sudden, those words mean something completely different? Now, all of a sudden, I'm talking about his mama? C'mon man. That don't even make no sense."
Alvarez is one of the most experienced and decorated fighters in boxing today. The 31-year-old will contest his 60th pro bout against Plant.
It will be his fourth match in 11 months, having beaten Callum Smith, Avni Yildirim, and Billy Joe Saunders with ease.
The Premier Boxing Champions event will be broadcast on Showtime pay-per-view, and is, by far, the biggest stage Plant will ever have fought on.