By Matt Lieberman: David Benavidez didn’t like what he saw from Caleb Plant with his lackluster 12 round unanimous decision win over Caleb Truax last Saturday night.
Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) successfully defended his IBF super middleweight title at the Shrine Exposition Center, Los Angeles. But Plant wasn’t able to knock out former IBF champion Truax (31-5-2, 19 KPs) to build up interest in a fight between him and Canelo Alvarez later this year.
Canelo will still fight Plant because he wants his IBF title, but it still would have been better if he had scored a stoppage win over Truax.
Benavidez wants to fight Plant in a grudge-match with the winner to face Canelo in September, but it’s not a match that has any chance of happening.
With Plant’s successful title defense done against Truax, he can sit and wait until September to fight Canelo.
Benavidez wants Caleb Plant next
“He’s a strong fighter, he’s a good fighter, but I’d like to see him against a little bit better talent but I think that’s a great fight between me and him,” said Benavidez to Barbershop Conversations about Edgar Berlanga.
“Dimitry Bivol is a great fighter, I’ve sparred with him a couple of times. He’s a great fighter and a strong fighter too. I would love to see him fight [Artur] Beterbiev. That would be an amazing fight.
“Whoever gets the person first, it could go either way. The thing is, if Bivol is able to fight him at a distance, he can make him run into that right hand.
“He has a good chance. If the fight is fought on the inside, Beterbiev has the upper-hand if the fight is fought at close quarters.
“Maybe longer,” said Benavidez when a caller predicted that Plant will sit out until 2023 to avoid Benavidez.
“Let me tell the fans; we had an offer to fight Truax,” said Jose Benavidez Sr. “I thought he was a little past it. I didn’t think he was going to do anything for our career, but he looked good [against Plant].
“And I think we should fight him to make a statement to show what David can do. He looked good to me. He didn’t get stopped,” said Jose.
“I’ll stop Truax out of respect,” said Benavidez. “If Canelo doesn’t give him [Plant] a fight and he’s going to sit out for a year, I should fight him. I’m a two-time WBC world champion.
“I should be the person to fight Caleb Plant. If he doesn’t fight Canelo Alvarez, I should be the next person in line,” said Benavidez.
There’s little chance that Plant, 28, will take the chance of fighting Benavidez before he takes on Canelo in September.
Plant’s performance lacked excitement
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Caleb Plant says he’s the A-side, and he wants to give me 70-30, 60-40, or some s*** like that,” Benavidez said.
“Honestly, I think he needs me too. I mean, he did great, he did what he had to do [against Truax], but there was no excitement.
“He [Plant] doesn’t stop the fighters. I feel like as much as I want to fight him, he needs me too.
“The season I stopped mentioning Canelo is because that’s a way harder fight to get because he’s trying to unify titles,” Benavidez continued.
“If I have to go to the back of the line to earn my spot and earn my opportunity, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. [Jermall] Charlo doesn’t have a belt at 168.
“I feel like that’s the first step [beating Charlo] to making that fight happen, and the second step is beating Caleb Plant. The third step is winning [against Canelo].
“That’s how things go. You can’t just go and call out Canelo because there’s nothing to offer. Canelo is a businessman, he’s trying to unify titles.
“So I feel like I got to be respectful of that too, and go back and earn my spot too. That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” Benavidez said.
Plant isn’t a knockout puncher, so it’s unreasonable to expect him to step out of his lane to fight a different way. He’s not capable of knocking out his opponents with power limitations.
Eight months is a long time for Plant to stay inactive, but he’s got his hand injury that needs to heal.
Ideally, it would be good if Plant got back into the ring to fight Benavidez before facing Canelo, but it’s unlikely to happen.
Jose Benavidez Sr critical of Plant
“We’re working hard to give you good fights, and we’re going to show you who the real champion is,” said Benavidez’s dad Jose Sr. “You [Plant] looked like s***.
“No good [against Truax]. Amigo, next time you should go to the body a little bit. Practice the body a little bit.
“He’s always doing that tap-tap-tap-tap. You need to dig down to the body, bro. Break those ribs. We got to represent.
“Give the people what they want. They work so hard for their money, and to see those kinds of fights [Plant vs. Truax], it’s disappointing, you know?
“Some people left because the superstar at 168 promised a lot of excitement, and he came with nothing. He looks like a fake Mexican [Canelo]. He’s Irish, bro.
“I told all you I’m a superstar.’ He believes his own lies,” said Jose Sr about Plant. “That mother f**** don’t listen to nobody no more. He thinks he’s a superstar.
“Once you stop listening, that’s it. There you go, come on,” said Jose Benavidez in listening to Plant make an injury excuse about having hurt his hand during the Truax fight.
“He didn’t get touched, did you hear that? Yeah, from the first round, he hurt his hand. He can’t even remember.
“He’s saying he’s fighting, our team says we’re fighting. David Benavidez, what’s up? There you go. Like he did with Truax, right?” said Jose in reacting to Plant saying, “You line them up, I knock them down.”
Plant’s inability to finish the job is what hurt his performance, as he had a guy that was totally over-matched in the speed department.
Maybe things would have been different if Plant hadn’t suffered the hand injury early on. We’ll never know for certain.