By: Hans Themistode
Jose Benavidez Sr. will be an interested observer come November 6th, as both unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, and IBF belt holder Caleb Plant, will square off.
Originally, Benavidez Sr. was hoping that his son and former two-time 168-pound titlist, David Benavidez, would get the call to face either man. Instead, his son will look to knock off Jose Uzcategui one week later on November 13th.
As Benavidez Sr. prepares his son to go to war, the long-time trainer quickly analyzed the showdown between Plant and Alvarez. Not only does he expect Plant’s title reign to come to an end, but Benavidez also believes he will endure a physically painful night.
“I think Canelo is really going to hurt Caleb Plant,” said Benavidez Sr. during an interview with Fight Hub TV.
Aside from simply predicting the outcome of the fight, Benavidez Sr. dived deeper into his analysis, giving his exact reason as to why Canelo vs. Plant will be one-way traffic.
“I think he’s very fragile and he tends to get marked up very fast,” continued Benavidez Sr. “If he stays and trades a little bit with Canelo, he has very delicate hands, very fragile hands. I think he’s going to end up breaking his hand. That’s going to be very bad for him because Canelo is going to end up doing everything that he wants to do. He might end up in the hospital.”
As previously mentioned by Benavidez Sr., Plant has a history of hand issues. Heading into his first shot at a world title against Jose Uzcategui, Plant suffered a broken hand and was forced to have subsequent surgery.
More recently, Plant suffered from injury woes to hand yet again. During his latest title defense against former champion Caleb Truax, Plant wounded his left hand early in the fight. Despite essentially fighting with one hand, the Nashville, Tennessee native went on to dominate every round and win a wide unanimous decision.
Pairing Plant’s injury history with his lack of power and Benavidez Sr. believes he’s going to be in a world of hurt against Alvarez. The Mexican native and pound-for-pound star recently ended the career of Billy Joe Saunders. The two clashed in May earlier this year at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
In the eighth and what turned out to be the final round, Alvarez landed a deleterious uppercut that shattered the right orbital bone and eye socket of Saunders. Shortly after, the corner of the British native pulled their man from the bout. Once surgery was completed on the fracture, Saunders announced that he would be retiring from the sport. Unless, of course, long-time rival Chris Eubank Jr., pony up at least five million dollars for their own clash.
Although Benavidez Sr. has never quite seen eye to eye with Plant, he isn’t actively rooting against him. With that said, he views his upcoming task as virtually impossible.
“Hopefully he can do a big upset but I really don’t see it.”