Caleb Plant defends against Caleb Truax on Jan.30th on Fox

Image: Caleb Plant defends against Caleb Truax on Jan.30th on Fox
By Boxing News - 12/16/2020 - Comments

By Jim Maltzman: Caleb Plant will be coming off an 11-month layoff next month to defend his IBF super-middleweight title against his highest-ranked contender Caleb Truax on PBC on Fox.

Plant (20-0, 12 KOs) hasn’t fought since defeating his IBF mandatory challenger Vincent Feigenbutz by a 10th round knockout earlier this year on February 15th.

Plant will need to be careful against ‘Golden] Truax, as he punches hard with both hands, and he’s dangerous throughout. Truax is one of those fighters that retain their power even into the late rounds.

Truax a tough test for Plant

Although Truax has four defeats on his record, he’s only been truly beaten once in his career, and that a first-round knockout against Anthony Dirrell in 2016.

Dirrell caught Truax cold in that fight and knocked him down twice to get a first-round knockout.

Image: Caleb Plant defends against Caleb Truax on Jan.30th on Fox

In Truax’s career, he lost a 10 round unanimous decision to the former middleweight champion in 2012. Truax came on strong in the later rounds and knocked Taylor down in the ninth.

In defending against former IBF 168-lb champion Truax (31-4-2, 19 KOs), the talented 28-year-old Plant will be facing his highest-ranked contender.

Truax is a quality fighter who might still be the IBF super-middleweight champion if not for losing a highly controversial 12 round unanimous decision to James ‘Chunky’ DeGale in April 208 in their rematch.

For boxing fans that remember that fight, DeGale had a bum shoulder, and he spent virtually the entire fight clinching. Whenever there was daylight between them, Traux was nailing DeGale with shots.

It’s easy to understand why DeGale was given the decision. DeGale was the name guy, who had carved out a nice pro career until running into Badou Jack in 2017.

Traux beat DeGale by a 12 round majority decision in their first fight in December 2017 and came close to stopping him. The judge that scored it 114-114, Dave Parris, took a lot of criticism from boxing fans afterward due to how one-sided the fight was.

Plant must keep winning

Since losing the controversial decision to DeGale in their rematch in 2018, Traux has beaten Fabiano Pena and David Basajjamivule. Truax also has a second-round no-decision against Peter Quilln from April 2019 in a fight that was halted after Caleb suffered a cut from a clash of heads.

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Plant will be making his third defense of his International Boxing Federation 168lb title that he captured in January 2019 with a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision win over the hard-hitting Jose Uzcategui.

In that fight, Plant dropped Uzcategui twice and took him to school. After winning the IBF belt, Plant has breezed through his two title defenses in destroying Mike Lee in the third round stoppage and Vincent Feigenbutz in a tenth-round TKO.

It’s important that Plant not have any slip-ups against Truax, seeing that he’s being targeted by Canelo Alvarez for a unification fight, possibly in 2021. That’ll be a good money fight for Plant.

Image: Caleb Plant defends against Caleb Truax on Jan.30th on Fox

Boxing fans want to see Plant defend against former WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez. Plant will likely wait until Benavidez recaptures his WBC title before facing him. If Plant beats Canelo next year, he will make a lot of money in the rematch. That fight could turn him into a star.