If Caleb Plant approaches his fight in the ring against Canelo Alvarez the same way he did at the negotiating table, he may end up surprising more than a few viewers. 

The Nashville-born IBF super middleweight titleholder will put his belt on the line against Alvarez, the WBC/WBO/WBA champion, in a full unification title fight on Nov. 6 in Las Vegas. Alvarez announced the fight on his social media in late August. 

Both fighters appeared to be on the verge of facing each other in September but talks fizzled at the 11th hour. Plant blamed the impasse on Alvarez and his demands, one of which, according to Plant, stipulated that Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 KOs) would receive the same purse for a replacement opponent, in the event that Plant was either injured or sick.   

“We had a deal, and then he would come back with more [demands],” Plant recently said in an interview on The PBC Podcast. “We’d have a deal, then he’d come back with more, so, you know, it’s like, I don’t know what his deal was.” 

One thing is for sure, Plant (21-0, 12 KOs), who lives and trains in Las Vegas, takes pride in the fact that he and his team did not capitulate to Alvarez's more – in his view – ridiculous requests. 

“He knew, and I think he found out, we’re not a team and I’m not a fighter that he can just push around and bully,” Plant said.

Plant, who is backed by Al Haymon's Premier Boxing Champions, has been one of the flagship fighters featured in Fox-televised boxing broadcasts. Plant's fight with Alvarez, a network free agent, will take place on Fox pay-per-view in a PBC presentation. 

“I didn’t know how [the deal] was going to get resolved,” continued Plant. “I try not to get caught up in those things. It fell apart. What I can control is my effort and my attitude and that goes towards training and making sure I’m staying in the gym and being prepared for when the opportunity arrives.”

Although Plant maintains that he was ready to fight in September, that did not stop critics from maintaining that Plant was to blame for the initial fallout of the fight. Plant received a lot of flak last December for supposedly rebuffing an offer to fight Alvarez on late notice.

“People are going to say what they’re going to say,” Plant said. “I can’t control what people say about me. What people say about me isn’t really any of my business. A lot of those people, what have they accomplished? What have they done? That’s really the only emotions I saw in that. What did they do in life that they conquered and overcame?”