Caleb Plant hopes to put himself in the mix for unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez’s next fight when he takes on Trevor McCumby this Saturday, September 14 for the WBA interim 168-lb title at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Canelo already knocked out Plant in the 11th round on November 6, 2021, and there may not be much interest from the Mexican superstar, and certainly not from the fans, to see a rematch.
Canelo Rematch: A Financial Windfall
Plant has lost two of his last three fights and has not fought in 18 months since his 12-round unanimous decision loss to David Benavidez on March 25, 2023.
Understandably, you can see why Plant is keen to get a rematch with Canelo, as he believes a $10 million payday for that fight. The 32-year-old Plant isn’t going to see that kind of money fight with anyone else for the rest of what’s left of his career.
It is possible that Plant would be finished as a fighter if he faced one of the young contenders, such as Christian Mbilli, Osleys Iglesias and Diego Pacheco. You can’t blame Plant for a rematch against Canelo, as it certainly beats fighting the young killers for less money and probably the end of retirement.
The Dirrell win: A confidence booster
Caleb Plant got a lot of mileage out of his last win two years ago, knocking out 38-year-old Anthony Dirrell in the ninth round on October 15, 2022, but it wasn’t against one of the top contenders at 168. .
It was a gimmick against an old, washed-up fighter, and he didn’t say anything about Plant beating the older fighter. Now, if Plant beats someone young and talented like Iglesias, Pacheco or Mbilli, then we talk, but not Dirrell.
In that situation, Plant was given an opponent for a certain thing to make him look better than he is to rebuild him after his 11th knockout loss to Canelo in 2021.
Strangely, Plant continues to talk about his victory over Dirrell, acting like he accomplished something rather than admitting what the fight was about. It was a confidence booster to get Plant used to winning again and give the appearance of being back.
If Plant was back, he would have beaten David Benavidez last year and would not have been out of the ring for 18 months after that loss.
Plant’s promoters did an excellent job of finding a beatable guy, Trevor McCumby, for him to fight, and the World Boxing Association sanctioned the fight for their interim 168-lb belt, even though Caleb’s record is a paltry 1- 2 in his last two contests.
Former IBF champion Plant (22-2, 13 KOs) thinks that with WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight champion David Morrell moving up to 175, the title will become vacant, and he will have it handed to him.
So, if Plant captures the WBA interim belt against McCumby on Saturday, the title will be elevated to a ‘regular’ world belt. With Canelo holding the full WBA super middleweight title, that would put Plant, 32, in a position to face him next or soon.
It’s ultimately Canelo’s call
As we saw with Morrell, holding the WBA ‘ordinary’ title does not guarantee that Plant will get a chance against Canelo. The Mexican star never took notice of Morrell when he held the WBA ‘ordinary’ belt, and he probably could have remained champion for the rest of Canelo’s career without getting a fight against him.
It comes down to whether Canelo will want to fight Plant again because fans don’t want to see a rematch between them. They want Canelo to fight some new blood, like Benavidez, Morrell, Pacheco, Artur Beterbiev, or a rematch with his former conqueror Dmitri Bivol.
“With the WBA interim (168-lb) title on the line and (regular super-middleweight champion) David Morrell moving up to 175, there’s a good chance the winner (of the Trevor McCumby-Plant fight), me, to WBA be elevated. regular’ champion. Canelo has a WBA world title. So, if you can do the math on that, it’s going to put me in a good spot,” Caleb Plant told the Cigar Talk YouTube channel, suggesting he wants to be the next opponent for Canelo Alvarez to fight in a rematch.
“Right now my full attention is on the task in front of me (McCumby),” Plant said.
Best fighters at 168:
Christian Mbilli
Osley Iglesias
Diego Pacheco
Jaime Munguia
Caleb Plant
Sergiy Derevyanchenko
Edgar Berlanga
Kevin Lele Sadjo
Bektemir Melikuziev
Erik Bazinyan
