Team Benavidez Says Caleb Plant Continues to Avoid Fight
Within the super middleweight division, there is a very storied rivalry that exists between David “Red Flag” Benavidez (25-0, 22 KO’s) and Caleb “Sweethands” Plant (21-1, 12 KO’s). The two have traded insults and threatened to battle one another year after year for some time now. Despite their open animosity and significance of the match, the prizefight has never been made. Plant recently said that he would fight David Benavidez after staging one more ‘big’ fight.
Many thought this to be a strange notion due to there being virtually no fights for him bigger than Benavidez at the moment. Sweethands didn’t do himself, or the fans, any favors by neglecting to offer any potential next opponents. Upon hearing that he was looking for his next in-ring assignment, Team Benavidez was quick as ever to toss their own name in the potential hat. In doing so though, they felt the need to debunk Caleb Plant’s claim that Team Benavidez never tried to make a fight.
“The fight that we really want, that we really worked so hard for it [is Caleb Plant]. I did talk to Luis DeCubas, Caleb Plant’s manager. He [Plant] says that I am not David’s manager, that I am just a trainer. I am David’s manager and I did reach out to Luis DeCubas to make that fight with Caleb Plant. We were talking, Luis tried to do the best that he could to make that fight. We were working on it and he [Plant] declined. He said that he wants to fight the best, he wants to get up to the top right away. Why not make that fight?”
Jose Benavidez Sr.
CUT THE GAMES
It really is rather disappointing that this fight has gone this long without coming together. Hopefully this will not continue to be the case much longer. Yet with Plant being as cryptic as he is, there is no reason to think things will change. In the meantime, Benavidez has an upcoming showdown with David Lemieux on May 21. Provided that he is successful on that date, then it’s a very good bet to assume that Red Flag will resume putting pressure on Sweethands to sign on the dotted line.
“I feel like we’ve let this fight marinate as long as possible and now I feel like it’s going to be in an even better position because once I get the WBC interim title, there will be no excuse not to fight. He says he wants to get back up to get the rematch with Canelo and this is the best step to do it!”
David Benavidez, former world super middleweight champion
Reading Time: 3 minutes
By: Bakari Simpson
