Bring on Canelo Alvarez?
Caleb Plant looked like a threat to anyone in his super middleweight title defense against Caleb Truax on Saturday in Los Angeles, battering his overmatched opponent en route to a shutout decision.
The 28-year-old-Plant was too quick and too good for a 37-year-old who has seen much better days, which allowed the Tennessean to have his way with Truax from beginning to end.
And he did it with what he believes was a broken left hand suffered in the first half of the fight, which might’ve played a role in his inability to deliver the knockout he had predicted.
That was the only significant flaw in his performance.
“I wanted the stoppage,” Plant said immediately after the fight. “I’m a little disappointed the hand got hurt early on in the fight but I feel I put on a great performance. And I’m ready for whoever and whatever is next.”
Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) is at the top of his game, with three successful defenses of the IBF 168-pound title he won by outpointing Jose Uzcategui in January 2019.
Truax (31-5-2, 19 KOs) is at a different stage of his career, obviously no longer the fighter who upset James DeGale by decision to win the same time title in 2017. He’s older and he has battled injuries, which evidently has slowed him down.
Truax simply didn’t have the speed and perhaps the reflexes to cope with Plant’s varied offensive attack, which started with a sharp, consistent left jab that kept Truax off balance but included power shots to the head and body from all angles.
Truax was able to slip in a few straight rights but, in the big picture, he accomplished nothing beyond surviving to hear the final bell.
The loser landed only 47 punches, according to CompuBox. That’s less than four per round. And he connected at a rate of 12%, which speaks to Plant’s defensive ability. That kind of output was far from enough to push an elite fighter like Plant.
Meanwhile, Plant picked Truax apart, broken hand or no broken hand. He landed 179 of 581 punches (31%), which was more than enough to earn 120-108 tallies on all three cards and bloody Truax’s nose.
Few fights are as one-sided as this one.
Plant was asked afterward whether he could’ve done more to stop Truax. That’s when he brought up his hand.
“I kind of hurt my hand early in the fight,” he said. “And, you know, maybe I was a little hesitant at times. But I feel like I put on a great performance. … I’m happy.”
“Do you think it’s broken?” he was asked.
“I think so,” he said.
When?
“It was about maybe a third of the way through, sometime in there. I can’t remember. Maybe the fourth or fifth round.”
The hand should have plenty of time to heal.
Alvarez, who holds the WBA and WBC belts, has said his objective is to unify all four major 168-pound titles. The Mexican star is scheduled to face mandatory challenger Avni Yildirim on Feb. 27 and reportedly has a date with WBO titleholder Billy Joe Saunders in May.
That means Plant is the favorite to face Alvarez on Mexican Independence Day weekend in September, assuming Alvarez beats Yildirim and Saunders.
“That’s my goal,” Plant said. “… I want to become the first undisputed super middleweight champion of all time. Whoever is in the way of that it doesn’t matter. You line ’em up, I’ll knock ’em down.”
Plant was asked how he matches up against Alvarez, who many believe is the best fighter in the world pound for pound. The opponent obviously doesn’t matter to him.
“Like I said, whoever is in the way of me becoming the first undisputed champion … you line ’em up, I’ll knock ’em down.”
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