Caleb Plant Wants David Benavidez
After stopping his mandatory challenger Vincent Feigenbutz (31-3, 28 KO’s), IBF super middleweight champion Caleb “Sweet Hands” Plant (20-0, 12 KO’s) is sitting on top of the world. To put the cherry on top of the near shut-out performance, Plant whitewashed Feigenbutz in his first hometown bout since turning professional.
Yet, as it is in the ‘what have you done for me lately’ world of the boxing, with Feigenbutz vanquished, the next inevitable question immediately becomes, ‘who’s next?!’ This is not a very difficult question for Sweet Hands to answer. For quite some time, Plant has clamored for a showdown with fellow titlist WBC super middleweight champion David “Red Flag” Benavidez (22-0, 19 KO’s).
LINES DRAWN IN THE SAND
The two men have shared a conspicuous amount of bad blood and each would delight in socking the other in the face. The question is, when will this red hot confrontation be able to take place? At the moment, Benavidez has an open schedule, as does Plant.
In a perfect world, their two respective teams would strike while the iron is hot and make this mouthwatering fight a reality now. Nevertheless, the IBF champion made it abundantly clear he was not willing to sit around twiddling his fingers waiting for the scrap to get pieced together.
“I’m not waiting on anybody. That’s a fight that I want but I am a world champion, I’m a world-class fighter. I have my own path, my own career and I don’t have to sit and wait on the shelf for anybody. I’m the best 168-pounder.”
I’M THE BEST!!
Going quite a few steps further, not only did Plant clarify why he felt he was the best competitor at 168, he let it be known why the other top guys were not!
“Listen to me, David Benavidez had a fight that was this close [motions with fingers] with Ronald Gavril, he’s a C+ fighter. He also got dropped by Ronald Gavril. What if I had a close fight like that with Ronald Gavril? I never would have heard the end of it. What if I got dropped by Ronald Gavril? I would never hear the end of it.
Then you got Callum Smith who gets booed in his hometown by getting a bad decision against a 5’9 John Ryder. A guy who’s 5’9, Callum Smith is like 6’15. He has a fight this close in his hometown where his hometown is booing him. Then you have Billy Joe Saunders. Who did he win the world title against? You don’t know! What about his last guy he fought where he had a bad showing against his US debut? Who did he fight there?
Okay…so these three other champs are having tough fights and bad showings against guys that they’re supposed to be killing and we got a guy like Jose who’s supposed to kill me and I dog walk him. But I’m not the best 168-pounder walking God’s green Earth?
I’m not getting big-headed, those are facts. Did all three of those guys have bad showings against guys they were supposed to kill?…have you seen me have a close fight yet against quality guys? Maybe that’s for a reason.”
MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT
Yet, to make sure that there is no mistaking the situation, Plant reiterated one last time who he had his heart set on.
“You know who I want to fight, you know what I want to do, I’ve said it loud and clear. I’m not going to keep saying it. You know who I want to fight, you know I want a unification match. At the same time, I’m not going to sit on the shelf and wait for nobody. I’m the man to beat, so.”
By: Bakari Simpson
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