A critical look at the past week in boxing
GOOD
Canelo Alvarez would be a solid favorite to beat anyone in his weight class, including Caleb Plant.
That said, Plant’s performance against Caleb Truax on Saturday night – a shutout victory – might’ve tightened the spread to some degree. The Tennessean looked that good in a dominating victory in spite of a hand injury.
Plant has the natural gifts, quickness, reflexes and athleticism, which must’ve made him a blur to his ineffective 37-year-old opponent. He seems to have a high boxing IQ, the result of a life in the gym. And, by all accounts, he’s dedicated to his craft.
He might not be the puncher Alvarez and some others are but many fighters have risen to greatness without unusual power.
I’m not saying that Plant will ever be seen as a great fighter. It’s too early for that. His two most-significant victories are over Jose Uzcategui (to win his title) and now Truax. He must do more than that to rise to pound-for-pound status.
I AM saying that Plant seems to have the tools and work ethic to become a special fighter and perhaps give Alvarez more trouble than some will predict.
I keep thinking of Alvarez’s 2019 fight against Sergey Kovalev, a declining light heavyweight who fought the Mexican superstar on roughly even terms before he was stopped in the 11th round. The scores were 95-95, 96-94 and 96-94 for Alvarez after 10.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that this young, prime version of Plant – although smaller than Kovalev and not as powerful – is a better, more dynamic boxer than the Russian.
Of course, that notion could prove to be nonsense. Truax landed some solid right hands to Plant’s head, which did no damage. The natural question to ask is: What happens if Alvarez lands that punch?
Well, I presume Plant and his team will have a similar thought. And they’ll make the proper adjustments. Plant and Co. are well aware that Truax is at one level and Alvarez is another. They’ll be as ready as they can be. You can count on that.
And one more thing: Alvarez also knows that Plant is better than his last few opponents, especially after Saturday night.
***
BAD
Truax said repeatedly going into the fight against Plant that he was grateful for the opportunity. Of course, he was. He arguably didn’t deserve it.
The product of Minnesota upset former Olympic champion James DeGale to win the same super middleweight belt Plant now holds in December 2017 and then lost it in the rematch four months later.
He has struggled since then, stopping journeyman Fabiano Pena, settling for a no-contest against Peter Quillin after he was cut, tore his Achilles tendon ahead a rematch with Quillin and then barely outpointed a 41-year-old David Basajjamivule in his most-recent fight.
Those aren’t the credentials of a mandatory challenger to Plant’s title. He most likely rose to that position because of his one and only significant victory years ago, which got him this fight.
However, when that fight actually began, he had nothing. He was beaten to the punch at every turn. He was slow, inactive, utterly overmatched. The CompuBox statistics reflect his futility: He landed less than four punches per round.
Truax tried hard. We all knew he would do that based on his track record. However, effort alone doesn’t amount to much when you don’t have the basic tools to compete at a high level, which we saw on Saturday.
You’ll rarely see a more one-sided fight than this one.
I don’t want to be too hard on any party. Such matchups are routine in boxing. Alvarez vs. Yildirim could be more one-sided, if that’s possible. And you certainly can’t blame Truax, who grabbed what was placed in front of him.
I would simply hope that the movers and shakers in the sport — anyone with any kind of authority — will see a fight like Plant vs. Truax and ask themselves, “Is this really the best we can do?”
***
WORSE
The WBA might be the most objectionable of the four sanctioning bodies because it decided at some point to have two champions (three if you count its Gold title) per division and everyone inexplicably bought into it.
The Puerto Rico-based organization might’ve outdone itself on Friday, however.
The events are complicated but here goes. Heavyweight contender Trevor Bryan was scheduled to fight the WBA’s “regular” champion, Manuel Charr, on a Don King-promoted pay-per-view card in Hollywood, Fla.
However, in the end, Charr wasn’t available because of visa and other, more mysterious issues. So what did the WBA do? It designated Charr its “champion in recess” and approved a fight between Bryan and unranked Bermane Stiverne for the vacant “regular” title, which Boxing Junkie doesn’t recognize.
Stiverne is 42, was knocked out in his last two fights (against Deontay Wilder in one round and Joe Joyce in six) and hadn’t fought for nearly two years yet found himself in a “title” fight.
Now, after Bryan put Stiverne down twice and stopped the Haitian-Canadian in 11 rounds, many people who should know better will refer to Bryan as a world heavyweight champion, which is a pathetic combination of laughable and depressing.
We all know that Anthony Joshua is the actual WBA titleholder but that doesn’t seem to matter.
So how did this happen? We can only speculate. One presumption: King still has some clout at 89 years old. The legendary promoter now has a major player in the division. Another presumption: WBA officials didn’t care who Bryan fought. Sanctioning fees are sanctioning fees.
I do my best to ignore the secondary titles. I hope everyone reading this does the same thing.
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