By Adam Baskin: Stephen ‘Breadman’ Edwards, the trainer for Caleb ‘Sweethands’ Plant, says he’s not worried about the intimidation tactics and the outstanding physical conditioning of David Benavidez after the two fighters met today for their first press conference for their March 25th fight.
Edwards says they’re already well-prepared with a plan-A, B & C for the Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Still, you got to be a little concerned if your Edwards at how menacing Benavidez looked today and how he had Plant seemingly cowering in fear after he approached the podium where he was trashing him in front of the media today.
Plant looked scared
The former IBF 168-lb champion Plant (22-1, 13 KOs) looked like a rat that had just seen a large cat, and he was already leaning back as if to make a hasty retreat.
If you watched Plant’s recent fight against Anthony Dirrell, you wouldn’t expect him to stand his ground to meet a locomotive like Benavidez head-on with just his bare fists and no mouthpiece in.
“March 25th, that’s it. We just got to stay focused, that’s all. It ain’t no big deal. That ain’t nothing,” said Plant’s trainer Stephen ‘Breadman’ Edwards to Fighthype, moments after today’s press conference between Calen and David Benavidez ended.
“You don’t get worked up with that kind of stuff from where I’m from. That ain’t no big deal. He [Benavidez] looks in shape. We in shape too. He can be in shape all he wants to be.
“I can’t worry about what David Benavidez is doing. I got to worry about my guy. We in shape too, and we’re going to show up on March 25th. It depends, man,” Edwards said.
Caleb not looking for a knockout
“The goal is to win the fight,” said Edwards when asked if Plant will display some of the power he showed with his recent ninth round knockout victory over Anthony Dirrell. We got to win the fight. We’ve got different adjustments.
“We got a plan A, Plan B, and Plan C. The goal is just to win the fight. I don’t want to keep talking about the knockout because that’s hard to do at the top level, hitting a guy with one shot and knocking him out.
“It’s not just going 11 rounds. It’s the pressure on David. When you guarantee a knockout, and you call yourself the ‘Mexican Monster’ and all that, then you got to deliver all that. So it’s a lot of pressure on him. We’ll see what happens.
“I’ve been around him [Benavidez]. That kind of stuff don’t rattle me. It’s just talk. People have bad blood in boxing. This is a sport where you can legally fight somebody. So I don’t really have too much emotion with that stuff. It is what it is. They don’t like each other.
“On March 25th, tune in. Everyone is complaining that fights don’t get made. They made the fight,” said Edwards.