Bernard Hopkins is picking Caleb Plant to defeat WBC interim super middleweight champion David “The Mexican Monster’’ Benavídez this Saturday night, March 25th, on Showtime pay-per-view at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
(Photo credit: Ryan Hafey/Premier Boxing Champions)
Hopkins feels that the experience of the older ‘Sweethands’ Plant (22-1, 13 KOs) will be enough for him to get past the younger big-punching Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs).
Plant has got a clear advantage in technical skills and overall ring IQ. That’s something that the 26-year-old Benavidez won’t be able to match in this fight, and he almost has focus exclusively on his power and work rate.
One thing that has gone over the heads of a lot of the fans is the way that Benavidez has worked himself like a dog for months and months, and appears to have lost a lot of muscle.
Benavidez clearly been stressing out with this being the biggest fight of his career, and he’s done too much. He seems to think that the harder he works, the better the results, but there’s a point where a fighter can overdo it and leave their best in the gym. We might see that with Benavidez.
“I like Caleb Plant. He’s a live dog. By being Caleb Plant,” said Bernard Hopkins to Fighthype, picking Caleb Plant to defeat David Benavidez.
“I think he wins it more on what he has to prove. His skills speak for themselves. He’s got it in experience.”
Plant and his trainer Stephen ‘Breadman’ Edwards, are expected to have a solid game plan to take advantage of Benavidez’s overaggressiveness and lull him into traps in the same way they did with Anthony Dirrell.
“I think that’s how he rolls with the aggressiveness and the chip on his shoulders type of mentality,” said Hopkins when asked if Benavidez is too emotional at the recent press conference with Plant.
“I don’t read into it too much when the guy is with that type [of action]. Yeah, it’s a little mouthy with some fighters. I just think that’s the way he gets himself pumped. I think without it, he would be basically ordinary.
“I think that’s part of his makeup to be a dangerous guy to fight, and one of the most sought out fighters in the professional business. So, I think that all comes into who he is,” said Hopkins about Benavidez.
