Trainer Jeff Mayweather still believes the Caleb Plant vs. Jermall Charlo fight can happen next, despite Plant’s defeat against Armando Resendiz last Saturday night in Las Vegas. Jeff says, “Nothing has changed” in terms of the Plant-Charlo fight being viable. He states that Plant is in a “Great position” to take the fight with Jermall.
Shopworn Plant Needs Wins
‘Sweethands’ Plant is in a weakened position to act as if “nothing has changed” and ignore a rematch with Resendiz to pursue a money fight against Jermall. Caleb’s record is 2-3 in his last five, and fans view him as a broken shell of the fighter who fought Mexican star Canelo Alvarez in 2021.
Fans see things differently. They’re not eager to see Plant (23-3, 14 KOs) fighting Charlo (34-0, 23 KOs) next after Caleb’s 12-round split decision loss to Resendiz (16-2, 11 KOs) last Saturday night at Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas. People don’t want to pay to see two old washed-up fighters on PPV. Plant and Jermall looked like a couple of old fossils from the Mesozoic Era, from the age of the dinosaurs, last Saturday night. Unless those two fight for free, fans won’t be interested in seeing them fight.
Ideally, Jermall needs a couple of wins against some top contenders, such as Diego Pacheco and Christian Mbilli, before a fight against the shopworn Plant would make sense. As for Caleb, he absolutely must avenge his defeat against Resendiz and look like gold in doing so.
Resendiz made WBA interim super middleweight champion Plant look a lot older than his chronological age of 32, beating him by the scores 116-112 Resendiz, 115-113 Plant, and 116-112 Resendiz. Most people agreed that Resendiz appeared to win eight of the twelve rounds.
Disengaged Caleb Lost Control
“I think Caleb thought he was winning when he was actually a little bit behind, because he was more or less boxing toward the end of the fight rather than trying to give it his all and win that round,” said Jeff Mayweather to Fighthype about Caleb Plant failing to understand that he was losing to Armando Resendiz last Saturday.
Plant admitted at the post-fight press conference last night that he was under the mistaken belief that he was winning the fight. He said he thought he’d won five of the first six rounds, and he felt that he’d won at least two rounds in the last half of the fight to win 7-5.
Caleb’s trainer, Stephen Edwards, sounded desperate in the championship rounds in 9-12, telling him repeatedly that he needed to step it up against Resendiz. For Plant not to be aware of how desperate Edwards was suggests that he was mentally disengaged from how dire his situation was. It could be that Plant’s ego is so big at this point in his career that he has a warped view of what’s going on in his fights. You’d hate to have someone like in your platoon in wartime
“We’re not used to seeing Caleb fight that way. He’s a great boxer, a brilliant boxer, and that’s what he should do, and that’s against anyone,” said Jeff about Plant making a mistake by brawling with Resendiz instead of boxing.
Heavy Plant: Slower, Older
Plant was trying to box, but he looked like he was carrying excess weight and unanable to move like he’d done when he was lighter. Resendiz didn’t have to do much to get to Plant because he was stopping often to rest againt the ropes, which is a sign of age and being too heavy.
“I thought he did good, but you could still see the rust in him,” said Jeff about his thoughts on Jermall Charlo’s performance in his sixth-round technical knockout of Thomas LaManna in his comeback after two years of inactivity. “Even though he stopped the guy, it didn’t seem like he had no urgency to do it.”
It looked like Jermall lacked the conditioning to attack LaManna the way he needed to get him out of there early. Charlo, 35, looked fleshy, carrying around an extra 10-15 lbs of fat on frame that shouldn’t have been there. He wasn’t trained well enough to fight hard for a full three minutes of activity to knock out the journeyman LaManna (39-6-1, 18 KOs) early the way Erislandy Lara had done.
“There were times when he just kind of carried the guy, and most of the time, fighters don’t do that,” continued Jeff about Charlo. “He could have, and he did say that. He said that at the press conference. He said he wanted to get a few rounds in, and that’s what he did. I don’t think if Caleb was in the ring with Charlo that he’d be fighting the same way he fought that guy [Resendiz],” said Jeff when asked how a fight between Jermall Charlo and Plant would have been like if it had happened last Saturday.
Jermall Looked Fleshy, Untrained
Charlo was getting caught with shots from LaManna, and you could tell that his reflexes and timing were off. The four years of inactivity and hard living, burning the candles on both ends, have taken something out of Jermall. His power remained the same, but his physical skills had deteriorated significantly. The way he fought, he’d have lost against many of the top 15 contenders at 168. At least 10 super middleweight contenders would have knocked out Jermall last Saturday. However, he still looks good enough to beat Caleb Plant.
“I just felt that he [Plant] felt that he’d done enough to win [against Resendiz], and he didn’t. He has a rematch clause, and he also has the Charlo fight. Nothing has changed, really,” said Jeff about Plant. “He can still fight the Charlo fight right now before he even fights the rematch [with Armando], if he’s ever going to do a rematch. So, Caleb is still in a great position.”
