Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn wants Caleb Plant to help make the super middleweight undisputed fight against Canelo Alvarez a much bigger fight in September by having the IBF 168-lb belt-holder earn the shot by taking on David Benavidez.
Plant’s win over Caleb Truax last Saturday wasn’t ideal preparation for a fight against Canelo to create excitement. The IBF champion Plant made it boring with the safety-first style that he fought.
It was such a mediocre effort from Plan, which is why Hearn and many other boxing fans want to see Plant take an interim fight against Benavidez.
Unless Hearn uses his pull with Canelo to insist that Plant face Benavidez to get the fight with him in September, it’s not going to happen.
Plant made it clear this week that he won’t be fighting Benavidez, which isn’t a big shock because he’s been ignoring his call outs for the last three years. Why would anything be different now?
“Of course, he [Benavidez] feels like he can just jump the line again and get a world title fight,” said Plant to Brian Custer’s Last Stand podcast this week.
“In his eyes, he feels like he’s going to beat me and then get the Canelo fight, but boxing doesn’t work that way. He’s had his opportunities,” said Plant in ruling out a fight against Benavidez.
Hearn can talk to Canelo about the idea of his mini-tournament. If Canelo is agreeable to it, he can use his power to let Plant know what he needs to do for him to get a chance to fight him.
If Plant chooses to stubbornly refuse Canelo’s request that he fight Benavidez, he should wash his hands of the Tennessee native and forget about unifying the 168-lb division.
The boxing public won’t care if Canelo chooses to give up on his quest to become the undisputed champion because this isn’t something that the fans care about. They’d much rather see Canelo take on the non-champion at 168 in David Benavidez.
“I think Plant is a fantastic fighter, but let’s be honest, his resume is really, really poor, really poor,” Hearn said to the AK & Barak Show on SiriusXM.
“In an ideal world, as a fan, I’d like to see Caleb Plant against David Benavidez in May, and then whoever is the belt-holder fights Canelo Alvarez.”
Caleb has been matched in a way that has guaranteed success because he’s been fighting guys that lacked the talent to give him any problems. You can argue that at least six contenders in the division would beat everyone that Plant has faced and look just as good as him.
Plant is expected to sit and wait for the Canelo fight in September without fighting again.
The IBF tossed Plant a softball in faced 37-year-old mandatory Caleb Truax last Saturday night, who he beat with ease.
Now that Plant has taken care of his IBF mandatory, it’s widely believed he’s just going to sit and wait for Canelo to fight him without risking that payday by fighting someone good.
What Hearn wants is a mini-tournament that ends with the two best fighters facing each other in September.
For his part, WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Canelo (54-1-2, 36 KOs) will need to beat Avni Yildirim on February 27th, and WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders on May 8th.
“I hope that Plant doesn’t sit tight until that fight, because I feel like that’s going to be a huge fight,” said Hearn.
“But it could be so much bigger if he [Plant] takes the right steps and fights the right opponents because he’s a great talent.”
It would be a much bigger fight if Plant agreed to fight Benavidez (23-0, 20 KOs), but he probably will never agree to that fight because it’s a horrible match-up for him.
If Benavidez had the talent of Caleb Truax, Plant would likely readily agree to fight him because he wouldn’t be a three to beat him.
If Canelo sticks to his guns and insists that Plant face Benavidez for him to get a fight against him, he just might do it knowing that he can make a ton of money.
Plant spent all of last week telling the media how he’s the #1 fighter in the super middleweight division. If this is true, he should have no problems taking on Benavidez in a mini-tourney.
Whoever the last man standing from February 27th and May 8th fights will meet the winner of the Plant vs. Benavidez match on the Mexican Independence Day holiday in September.
Hearn’s rationale for building a mini-tournament is because there won’t be a great deal of excitement if Canelo breezes through Yildirim and Saunders to face the unbeaten Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) in September.
It sounds like a brilliant idea by Hearn, and hopefully, it can come to fruition. He’s dead-on correct about Plant, 28, having a dreadfully abysmal resume, filled with cream puffs from top to bottom.
It’s obvious to many fans that Plant climb to the top was aided by careful match-making by his promoters, who have made the right moves for him in keeping him out of harm’s way by not matching him against dangerous guys like Benavidez.
Jose Uzcategui is the only opponent that Plant has faced that had some talent, and he had a lot of issues beating him in 2019.
With Uzcategui applying unrelenting pressure from the opening bell, Plant ran out of fuel in the eighth round, and he was battered from that point on. Uzcategui hurt Plant, and ad him on the verge of being knocked out in the ninth.
Plant’s best wins have come against these fighters:
- Caleb Truax
- Jose Benavidez
- Mike Lee
- Rogelio Medina
- Vincent Feigenbutz
Plant’s management is the one that has been matching him carefully. Perhaps if Plant were the one that made the choices for his opponent selection, he’d have been fighting better guys all this time.
What makes this writer doubt that Plant would have pressed for tougher opposition is that he still hasn’t fought Benavidez despite the former WBC champion having called him out many times to get a fight.