Alvarez, Plant cap rowdy weigh-in with intense staredown

The acquainted chants yet filled MGM Grand Garden connected Friday afternoon. For the archetypal clip since Nov. 2, 2019, erstwhile boxing’s pound-for-pound king past fought wrong the hallowed venue.

“Ca-ne-lo! Ca-ne-lo! Ca-ne-lo!”

Over and implicit and implicit and over.

All Canelo Alvarez could bash was grin successful approval.

The WBA, WBC and WBO ace middleweight champion and Mexican superstar stepped atop the standard connected the makeshift signifier wrong the arena and weighed an adjacent 168 pounds connected the eve of his combat against IBF ace middleweight champion Caleb Plant. The Nashville country autochthonal turned Las Vegan weighed 167 pounds and relished the chorus of boos helium received arsenic the underdog.

The 2 engaged successful an aggravated staredown and traded trash speech aft successfully solidifying their combat connected the standard — overmuch to the delight of the archetypal assemblage to be a weigh-in successful Las Vegas since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The victor of their combat Saturday becomes the archetypal undisputed champion successful the past of the 168-pound division.

“You tin cheer for him each you want. You tin boo for maine each you want,” Plant told Showtime’s Jim Gray arsenic the festivities concluded. “Remember, it’s casual to beryllium successful those seats. … It ain’t casual to basal up there. Remember that. This is what I do. I was calved for this. This is my destiny.”

Weigh-ins for fights similar this typically necktie unneurotic the promotion, allowing spectators to preview what they’ll spot travel combat night. But the pandemic has prevented fans from attending. Even for mega fights similar Manny Pacquiao’s swan opus against WBA welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas oregon WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury’s trilogy against Deontay Wilder.

But this peculiar promotion allowed fans to return, and their beingness intensified the consciousness of the fight. Most of the seating was closed, but thousands of fans inactive packed the arena an hr oregon truthful earlier Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 knockouts) and Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) tipped the scales.

Notable attendees included erstwhile Boston Celtics large Paul Pierce, WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney, WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo.

And heavyweight fable Mike Tyson.

Tyson was connected the signifier during the last staredown and told Gray he’s picking Alvarez to bushed Plant travel Saturday night.

“He’s a legend. A large fighter. I privation to beryllium similar him 1 day,” Alvarez said of Tyson.

“He’s moving himself to beryllium the champion combatant of his generation,” Tyson said of Alvarez.

Contact newsman Sam Gordon astatine sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon connected Twitter.