By: Sean Crose
Super middleweight Caleb Plant lost his world title to Canelo Alvarez in 2021…but don’t tell the 30 year old Plant that his single defeat has ruined his career. If you do, you’ll find yourself being given a history lesson. “Duran has been knocked out cold, fell face first against Tommy Hearns,” the 23-1 Plant recently told FightHype. “He quit in the middle of a fight against Sugar Ray Leonard, and he’s still regarded as one of the greatest of all time. Tommy Hearns has been stopped. Sugar Ray Leonard has been stopped. Muhammad Ali as been stopped.”
In other words, the history of the sport makes it clear a single defeat generally shouldn’t count for much. With that being said, David Benavidez – who, like Plant, is a former world titlist – would be more than happy to hand Plant a second defeat when the two men square off on the 22nd of this month in a 12 round pay per view main event. Non-title fights don’t usually get much bigger than this one. What’s more, the winner will be in line for another crack at a world title.
Plant let Fight Hype’s Sean Sittel know that he’s ready to rise to the occasion. “We know he’s got quick hands,” he said of Benavidez. “We know what he’s capable of. We know what he’s able to do, but we’ve got things to combat that and we’ve got things to neutralize that, and we have traps we’ve got to set, and we have a game plan in order.” Suffice to say, Plant does not believe the loss to Canelo will impact him in his throwdown with Benavidez.
“Anytime in my life that I’ve ever been through anything, I’ve come out the other side stronger,” said Plant, who has gone on to defeat Anthony Dirrell since the Canelo loss, “I’ve come out the other side better. Regardless of what’s put in front of me, its not going to fold me, its not going to crumble me. Just because you’ve come up short that doesn’t mean that you’ve failed.”
Plant also indicated that, if fans want more meaningful fights (like Plant-Benavidez) then they have to be willing to support those fights. “Fight fans beg for fights like these,” he said, later adding that: “When it comes to me and David, we’ve done our job. And were lifting up our end of the couch to make boxing thrive and to push the culture forward and so now it’s the fan’s job to life up their end of the couch and tune in, buy that pay per view, support us just like we’re supporting what they want. Hopefully they’ll support what we want.”