Listen Now:
By: Sean Crose
“It was a good fight,” super middleweight David Benavidez says in an interview with FightHype. “I give it to both the guys. I feel this fight builds it up more to make mine and Caleb’s fight that much more exciting.” The hard hitting and undefeated former world titlist Benavidez is referring to Caleb Plant’s single shot destruction of Anthony Dirrell last weekend at Brooklyn’s Barclay’s Center. He’s also referring to the impact that knockout has with his own anticipated bout with Plant.
At the moment, Benavidez is expected to face Jose Uzcategui in January. Should the 25 year old Benavidez prove victorious in that endeavor, then he expects that a showdown with Plant to go down in the spring. “I think that’s the fight that’s going to happen in May,” Benavidez says in the FightHype interview. “It’s going to be a great fight. I feel that fight’s going to bring the best out of me. I’m just looking forward to it whenever it happens.” A Benavidez-Plant fight would be nothing if not interesting, for it presents a contrast in styles that fans might appreciate. Plant, being the boxer and Benavidez, with his nearly 90% knockout ratio, being the slugger.
“It’s going to be a fucking hundred percent fight every round. I feel like that’s ultimately what wins fights,” Benavidez says of his style. “I feel like my engine, my stamina, and my power are ultimately going to take over the fight.” Then again, Plant showed he could turn out the lights himself last weekend, when a perfectly placed left hook sent two time world titlist Dirrell down and out in the ninth of a scheduled 12. “It’s not the power of Caleb that I need to worry about,” Benavidez argues, adding that it’s Plant’s slick boxing skills that concern him. “That’s where the problems going to be, with me having to catch him and cut the ring off,” he adds.
For his own part, Plant wants a rematch with Canelo Alvarez, who he performed well against last year before being stopped in thunderous fashion in the 11th. Benavidez, though, makes his opinion clear. “The only way to get to Canelo is to get through me,” he insists. Benavidez is, after all, the WBC’s interim super middleweight champion. “If anybody’s going to get a shot at the (world) WBC title,” he says, “it’s me.” There is concern on Benavidez’ part, however, that boxing politics might get in his way. “I just hope they don’t try to screw me over and put Caleb in front (of the line to face Canelo),” he says.
