Plant Could Rematch His Way to Undisputed via David Benavidez
To snap a year and a half of inactivity, Interim IBF super middleweight champion Caleb “Sweethands” Plant (23-2, 14 KO’s) fought and stopped the relatively unknown Trevor McCumby. With that duel out of the way, Plant can resume his mission to become the undisputed king of the division. To accomplish this though, does his best shot lie in trying to nab a rematch against Interim WBC 168-pound champion David “The Monster” Benavidez (29-0, 24 KO’s)?
Obviously, unified super middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez holds all the titles outside of the IBF. So, if Plant wants to be undisputed, Canelo would be the one-stop shop to accomplish that goal. Since his loss to Alvarez however, the only two wins that he has notched have come against Anthony Dirrell and Trevor McCumby. Honestly speaking, neither were setting the division on fire at the time of those prizefights. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find a significant group of fans that were well versed on who McCumby even is.
Despite his lack of previous visibility though, McCumby provided a sturdy test and was one half of arguably the most exciting and competitive match on the Canelo versus Berlanga pay-per-view card. Even still, it’s unlikely that that fun battle would be enough to entice the Mexican back into the ring.
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With the Interim IBF title however, Plant has a trinket that could potentially lure Benavidez back into the squared-circle. It’s very well known that Benavidez has been unsuccessfully chasing a showdown with Canelo for years. Even now, he is still listed as the Interim WBC champion which technically puts him in prime position to get that match. Yet, for whatever excuse he’ll provide this week, it’s very doubtful that Alvarez will grant The Monster a fight next.
This is why facing one another again could be such a strong political move for Plant and Benavidez. The winner would hold the interim-IBF title and the WBC interim title. This would put great pressure on Canelo to face that victor.
Assuming that Sweethands went this route and came out victorious, it’d be a major win-win situation. He could get revenge, back-to-back major pay days and set himself up for a second duel for undisputed all in just two matches. Clearly, this scenario is riddled with a whole mess of “ifs” and “maybes”. Even still, there is a very plausible potentiality here. Yet, since all three have recently fought and still have to announce their next move, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Nevertheless, Plant in either one of these rematches, on paper, looks like a very fun night at the fights!
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