Caleb Plant Defends his Punching Power
On October 15, super middleweight fighter Caleb “Sweethands” Plant (21-1, 12 KO’s) will begin the arduous climb back to a title shot. In his first bout back, he will square up with antagonistic rival Anthony “The Dog” Dirrell (34-2-2, 25 KO’s).
Directly before Dirrell, Plant suffered his first professional defeat, by eleventh round stoppage, at the hands of undisputed 168-pound champion Canelo Alvarez. Yet, well before that loss, Plant has been questioned about his apparent lack of crunching punching power. Unsurprisingly, when asked about this during a recent Q&A, Sweethands did not agree with this diagnosis.
“It’s funny because people say that I may not hit hard, but in almost all of my fights you find people where they are just standing there looking at me. And if I don’t hit hard, why not keep charging forward, cutting off the ring, doing what you’re supposed to do? It’s easy to say you don’t hit hard until you get in there and the bell rings! Even someone like Jose Uzcategui, how many times had he been dropped in his career? He got dropped by Mat Korobov one time, but other than that I am the only man to put him down.”
GET DOWN OR GET GONE!
It goes without saying that this match for #3 (IBF/WBA), #4 (WBC) and #6 (WBO) ranked Plant is of monumental importance. Two back-to-back losses would chop him off at the knees in terms of career momentum. Not to mention, losing to a near-retired Anthony Dirrell would be graded much more harshly than his previous defeat. So let’s kick back and see what remaining confidence and new wrinkles, if any, Sweethands brings to the ring versus Dirrell!
By: Bakari Simpson
