“NO Boxing No Life” is the slogan of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and his formidable team and there is no doubting that he and they approach their brutal craft in like manner. 

That rare breed of champion who the higher he climbs the hungrier he becomes, this weekend at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas Alvarez collides with fellow undefeated super middleweight world champion, Caleb Plant, for the right to be crowned undisputed and make history as the first undisputed middleweight champion there has ever been.

So active is Alvarez in this his prime that it seems only a few weeks back that he was climbing into a boxing ring in Texas to face Billy Joe Saunders. As it happens it was back in May, when he forced Saunders to retire on his stool with a broken eye socket after the eighth round.

That was then and this is now, and in front of Alvarez this weekend in what will be his 60th bout stands a fighter in Plant who may well have made the fatal mistake of getting under the Mexican’s skin.

A fractious press conference in Los Angeles five weeks ago culminated in Alvarez unceremoniously pushing his upcoming opponent during the obligatory face off after a few harsh words were exchanged. Plant came back at Alvarez with an attempt at a slap. Bad mistake. 

Alvarez managed to evade it with some deft head movement prior to smacking the US boxer a couple of times in the face before they were pulled apart by the usual gaggle of security, members of their respective teams and others.

This brief fracas left Plant with a small cut under his right eye, which as the likes of Carl Frampton and Paulie Malignaggi pointed out, may have negatively affected his ability to spar properly for a week or so at a crucial point in his preparations.

Regardless of any of that though, Plant is coming to win and has exuded impressive confidence that he can upset both the odds and millions of Mexican hearts this Saturday night in Sin City. 

Certainly, drafting in the services of retired and undefeated super middleweight champion Andre Ward and Ward’s former trainer Virgil Hunter for the fight suggests that he will arrive in the centre of the ring having left unturned no stone, just to reverse the cliché.

However, this could also prove a case of too many cooks, indicative of a lack of belief in what has hitherto been tried and tested in bringing him to this point as an undefeated champion. Anxiety is the arch enemy of any fighter. It catalyses a tendency to overthink and over prepare, and is self-defeating in a sport which dictates the primacy of instinct over thought at critical moments. 

Canelo Alvarez has this effect on opponents, compelling them to over prepare and think. His legendary status and aura of invincibility are weapons in themselves, crashing their way uninvited into the psyche of any fighter he faces, no matter what they say to the contrary. 

All the greats had this factor in their favour, and Canelo is without doubt one of the greats — and this even ahead of time.

Plant has the height and reach advantage, and he also possesses quicker feet and hands than the Mexican. But that’s on paper and this thing is being fought in a ring. 

More to the point, Canelo has faced every style, every size and every shape there is to face, with no-one but the ring magician that is Floyd Mayweather jnr overcoming to this point the considerable array of weapons he wields. 

Chief among those weapons are uncommon power in both hands, accuracy and fluid and beautiful combination punching, which is where the idea of drafting in Ward and Hunter to help Plant devise a strategy comes in.

Elusiveness, speed, an educated jab, slick boxing and the ability to control distance and range are what Plant plans on bringing to this contest. His challenge will be managing to keep Alvarez off him for the 12 rounds the fight will likely have to go if he is to stand a reasonable of chance of getting his hand raised at the end, given his power relative to that of his opponent.

Canelo’s long-time trainer and friend, Eddy Reynoso, is confident he won’t be able to keep the Mexican at bay and has been breezily predicting a knockout to all and sundry in the lead up. 

Reynoso has every right to be confident, what with the way his fighter has been going through opponents one after the other since his controversial draw against Gennady Golovkin in 2017. And, too, the manner in which Canelo Alvarez approaches his business — with the kind of dedication you would normally associate with a man who sleeps in a burlap sack rather than silk pyjamas — makes of confidence a dependable friend rather than impostor.

The MGM Grand on the Vegas Strip this Saturday night will again stage a battle of skill and will between two men in their physical prime determined to do what is required to taste glory. In the process they will each doubtless taste blood, such is the price exacted in this primal business.

Of all the words spoken in advance of the fight — the trash talk engaged in, insults delivered and predictions made — the most chilling were those spoken to a reporter by Canelo at his training base in San Diego just before leaving for Vegas. To wit: “It [this fight] is more personal than ever.”

Oh dear.