Caleb Plant (23-2, 14 KOs) kept his career alive with a ninth-round TKO victory over Trevor McCumby (28-1, 21 KOs) for the WBA interim super middleweight title in their undercard bout Saturday night at theT-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas .
Former IBF 168-lb champion Plant was on an 18-month layoff, and he didn’t look like his old self early on, getting hurt in rounds one, two and four. Plant was clearly troubled early by the power, speed and explosiveness of McCumby.
McCumby knocked Plant down with a right hand to the body in the fourth round. Plant was backed up at the time and not in a good position to take the punch to the body.
After the fourth, Plant adjusted and forced an infighting against McCumby, pushing him on the ropes and landing accurate shots. In a big mistake, McCumby allowed Plant to keep him there for long periods of time.
Between rounds, McCumby’s corner didn’t instruct him to stay off the ropes until the seventh round, but by then he was already taking a lot of punishment to the head. He looked like Plant took the fight out of him because of the time he spent against the ropes.
In rounds eight and nine, Plant ran at a tired and defeated McCumby as he had him against the ropes and dominated him in the center of the ring.
When Plant hurt the buzzer to signal 10 seconds left in the ninth, he unleashed a flurry of shots, many of which caught McCumby in the head. The referee, Allen Huggins, then stopped with one second left in the ninth to stop the fight.
Overall, it was a good performance by Plant, but not a great effort that would suggest he would beat the better contenders in the 168-lb division. Based on this performance, Plant does not deserve a rematch against unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.
Before tonight’s fight, Plant discussed the WBA elevating him from interim champion to regular champion if David Morrell does not return to 168. Plant said that if he is elevated to regular champion, Canelo will want to fight him. It probably won’t happen.
Plant didn’t look good enough to earn a rematch against Canelo, and McCumby wasn’t a big name. If Plant wants a rematch against Canelo, he needs to beat these types of fighters:
- David Morrell
- Christian Mbilli
- Osley’s Inglesias
- Diego Pacheco
- David Benavidez
 kept his career alive with a ninth-round technical knockout win over Trevor McCumby (28-1, 21 KOs) to claim the WBA interim super){kind=link}