By Adam Baskin: Former IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant is 100% focused on his fight against Anthony Dirrell for this Saturday night and NOT on bigger payday clashes against David Benavidez and Jermall Charlo.
(Photo credit: Henry DeLeon/TGB Promotions)
Plant (21-1, 9 KOs) has got to win this fight against Dirrell for him to keep alive his remote chances of a rematch with Canelo Alvarez. Beating Dirrell is the first step for Plant, but he must win to get to the next match-up against Benavidez or Charlo.
Compared to the other two steps, the 37-year-old Dirrell is an easy task for Plant, but it probably won’t be because the Flint, Michigan native can punch.
We’ve seen that Plant is vulnerable to punchers in his knockout loss to Canelo and his grueling victory over Jose Uzcategui in 2019. Plant was hurt by Uzcategui in the later rounds and finished the fight looking tired & beaten.
The way that Plant is talking, he appears to be leaning in the direction of a fight against WBC middleweight champion Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs). Charlo will have to move up to 168 for that match to occur because Plant won be able to come down in weight.
“I came up short in my last fight. I feel like I put on a great performance,” said Caleb Plant to Fighthype, talking about his 11th round knockout loss to Canelo Alvarez last November.
Some boxing fans would disagree with Plant about him, saying that he “put on a great performance” against Canelo.
The truth of the matter is Plant fought well in the first half of the fight but then gassed out and appeared to be looking for validation from Canelo at one point. It was just weird behavior from Plant.
He’d basically given up trying to win and seemed like he was hoping Canelo would take it easy on him if he be-friended him during the later rounds. If Plant does that against Dirrell, he’s going to get knocked out for sure because he doesn’t like him at all,
“I kept working on a lot of the things we had success with,” said Plant. “I think people know what I bring to the sport and what I bring to the boxing ring.
“I got a lot of creativity. I can do a lot of things in a lot of different ways. They can expect a show and me having my hand raised in fashion.
“We worked on a lot of things in camp. Just staying relaxed, staying calm, so it’s been a good camp. We worked on a few things. Tune in on FOX pay-per-view, and you’ll see what I’ve been working on.
“I’m not thinking past this fight,” said Plant when asked which fighter is more dangerous between David Benavidez and Jermall Charlo. “I think right now, I need to focus on the task in front of me, and I’ll get to that when I get to that.
“I feel like some fighters focus on what’s next. I don’t want to make the same mistake. I want to stay fully focused on Saturday, October 15th.
“I’m going to handle business and fashion, and then I’ll look to make the biggest fight we possibly can moving forward,” said Plant.
