Alvarez, 31, repeated time and time again during the pre-fight build-up that Plant was not on his “level.” Yet, the former belt holder gave the newly crowned undisputed super middleweight champion fits throughout most of the first half of their showdown. “In the second half of the fight, it was exactly how we envisioned it. Towards the end of the fight, Caleb Plant appeared to have injured his hand. Alvarez landed a picture-perfect right hand at the beginning of the period and quickly followed it up with an uppercut that saw Plant hit the deck. Watch that closely. Good finish from Canelo with a short right hand. With Plant coming off an 11th round knockout loss to Canelo Alvarez last November, he needed this fight with Benavidez more than the other way around. Plant never showed interest in fighting Benavidez in the past, so why would he be willing to fight him now after a loss to Canelo? I’m fighting for another interim belt. The Mexican pound-for-pound star has been untouchable at 168 since winning two of the four major belts by easily outpointing Callum Smith in December 2020. He followed that with a third-round knockout of overmatched Avni Yildirim in his first defense two months later, an eighth-round stoppage of Billy Joe Saunders to add a third title two-plus months after that and a wide decision over Caleb Plant this past November to claim the fourth and final belt.
The bad blood between the two top-ranked 168-pound fighters goes back a few years. Playing snow games is a wonderful way to keep your children entertained for a few hours during the day, rather than staying cooped up in the cabin. Be prepared to adjust plant spacing and veg times as needed and make sure you keep the temperature under control. The rare times they fought in the pocket, it was Fulton’s speed that got him the better of the exchanges. So I feel like that puts me in a better position too. “I feel like if for some reason, I don’t get a Canelo fight after this one, I’m going to have the interim belt, and I would love to fight. The guys that Canelo has been fighting since 2018 have been CLEAR underdogs. Caleb Plant: It looks like I might be fighting sometime in December, but nothing is confirmed yet. The only gain Benavidez would have gotten fighting Plant would be to knock him out quicker than Canelo did. Speaking to ESPN while in camp, Canelo is not worried about Plant and the threat he could pose in the fight. The former WBC super middleweight champion will fight David Lemieux on May 21 for the interim WBC super middleweight title.
1 WBC super middleweight contender Benavidez (25-0, 22 KOs), Plant backed out. There have been some major upsets of late however, so you can't rule anything out. Jose Sr. said they reached out to Team Plant and they “declined to fight David Benavidez.” It took Caleb Plant less than a day to turn down the fight with Benavidez after talking a whole lot of mess on social media. It looks weak on Plant’s part to decline the fight with Benavidez after talking trash on social media, making it look like he was interested. It’s unclear why it bothered Plant that Benavidez would be looking to schedule a fight before his match against Lemieux (43-4, 36 KOs). Soto (15-2, 6 KOs) has now lost two fights in a row. This is disappointing news because there were a lot of boxing fans that wanted to see the former IBF 168-lb champion Plant (21-1, 12 KOs) take on Benavidez. But according to Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, this has not dissuaded the unified super-middleweight world champion from taking the rematch, which is set to take place after his third fight against Gennady Golovkin in September. Plant is now expected to fight 37-year-old former Benavidez knockout victim Anthony Dirrell next.