Caleb Plant reveals offers sent to Callum Smith and GGG

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By Boxing News - 02/20/2020 - Comments

By Chris Williams: IBF super-middleweight champion Caleb Plant says offers have been out by his team to WBA 168-lb champion Callum Smith and IBF middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin for a fight. Plant (20-0, 12 KOs) will be waiting to see if there’s interest from either of those fighters.

Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) isn’t likely to take the fight with Plant, since he’s got an IBF mandatory coming up against Kamil Szeremeta in April. That could be the last hurdle for GGG before facing Canelo Alvarez in September in a trilogy fight. Plant would be a huge risk for Golovkin right now, and he’s not likely to take the chance of losing.

Hearn has other options for Callum Smith

Callum (27-0, 19 KOs) could be a possibility for Plant depending on his promoter Eddie Hearn. The 6”3″ Smith was one of the options for Canelo Alvarez until recently.

Hearn has said that if Callum doesn’t get the fight with Canelo or Billy Joe Saunders next, then he would look to put him in with Danny Jacobs or possibly Demetrius Andrade. Both of those fighters are promoted by Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing stable.

Also, Plant (20-0, 12 KOs) says fights against Canelo Alvarez and David Benavidez aren’t possible. Canelo fights in 9 weeks on May 2, and he won’t be able to fight him. WBC super-middleweight champion Benavidez will be facing replacement opponent Lionel Thompson next, and then after that his WBC mandatory Avni Yildirim.

Caleb Plant: offers made to GGG and Callum Smith

“I’ve always been honest and always been upfront with you guys. My team has sent out an offer to Callum Smith, and we also sent out an offer and reached out to GGG to set-up a fight,” said Caleb Plant to @StevESPNKim. “That would be on DAZN. Do you think that would be a pay-per-view worthy fight?” said Plant when asked if he would face Callum in the UK. “I mean, we got to see if he says, ‘Yeah,’ first, do you know what I’m saying? But that’s something we do want to see happen,” said Plant.

The timing of Plant’s offer to Golovkin is bad. That’s a fight that might have a shot at happening in 2021 after Golovkin faces Canelo this September. Of course, if GGG beats Canelo, then those two will be looking to face each other a fourth time. Plant wouldn’t be in the picture for either of those guys.

Callum is the best option by far for Plant, but it would be surprising if Hearn made that fight. Plant has a crafty fighting style that is bad for the lanky Smith. With Smith looking so bad in his last fight against John Ryder, Plant would likely expose all the flaws in Callum’s game.

Knowing Hearn, if he’s going to put Callum into a risky fight, it’ll be with either a big name like Canelo or one of his Matchroom stable fighters.

Canelo and Benavidez fights not doable for Plant

“We do want to give fans great fights, and I do want to fight the best,” said Plant. “I’m not just in this for the money, so I’m not just going to jump on an opportunity that’s not reasonable. So we’re going to try and reach out to make another unification fight.

“If David [Benavidez] can’t fight and can’t unify because he’s got the replacement for [Avni] Yildirim, and then after that, he’s got to face Yildirim.

“The Canelo fight is only 9 weeks away, and I CAN’T do that. And if he’s fighting Billy Joe [Saunders], and we’ve already heard that he is, then I’ll try and make a unification fight with Callum Smith,” said Plant.

It looks bad that Plant isn’t willing to agree to fight Canelo Alvarez because he’s taken a lot of flak from the boxing public for not being willing to start training camp off of 2 weeks rest from his title defense against Vincent Feigenbutz last Saturday night. Plant didn’t sustain a lot of damage in that one-sided fight.