By Sean Jones: Caleb ‘Sweethands’ coldcocked Jermall Charlo during a backstage altercation during Friday’s Errol Spence Jr vs. Terence Crawford weigh-in. In a viral video of the incident, Jermall looked like he didn’t expect the hard slap from Plant because he didn’t even have his hands up.
It appeared that he was standing there and was nailed without warning by Plant, and that’s a strong signal that the struggling fighter is trying to get a payday fight against Jermall.
Was Plant’s slap of Jermall a planned event?
Plant has lost two out of his last three fights, and his career is pretty much on the rocks at this stage. He was recently soundly beaten by David Benaavidez, and not long before, h was knocked out by Canelo Alvarez.
Caleb Plant hits Jermall Charlo in the face backstage during the Errol Spence Jr and Terence Crawford weigh-in 😳pic.twitter.com/Th2rILdpxZ
— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) July 29, 2023
With David Morrell Jr emerging as an upcoming star and Benaavidez there as well, Plant could quickly be forgotten by the boxing public. Plant’s slap of Jermall Charlo was one way for him to stay in the news. If this were something Plant planned out, it would be a useless way of keeping his career going.
It’s unclear what led up to the incident, but whatever it was, the former IBF super middleweight champion Plant (22-2, 13 KOs) felt the need to slap the inactive WBC middleweight champion Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) hard in the face with a left hook.
If this is a move by the 31-year-old Plant to anger Jermall enough for him to give him a fight, it’s probably not going to work because he’s in line to face Canelo Alvarez in 2024 after his brother Jermell Charlo faces the Mexican star on September 30th on Showtime PPV.
How can Plant stay relevant?
There’s no chance that Jermall, who hasn’t fought in two years, is going to risk his Canelo payday by taking on Plant to get revenge for the slap. If Jermall isn’t able to put 2 and 2 together to figure out what Plant is trying to do, his management will let him know what the deal is.
Plant needs to figure out a path to keep his career going because he’s not good enough to hang with David Morrell or David Benavidez. Canelo isn’t going to fight him again because he already knocked him out, and a rematch wouldn’t sell.
Plant got the Benavidez fight by beating the washed-up 38-year-old former WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell.
He’s not going to be able to do the same to get another fight with Benavidez, and he likely won’t want to fight Morrell because he’s not well known yet.
Morrell would likely destroy Plaant and make it look easy, which is why he won’t fight him.