David Benavidez and Caleb Plant will go head to head in an intriguing super-middleweight clash – and the champion, Saul ‘Canelo’ Álvarez, has chosen the winner.
Plant has challenged Canelo’s titles in 2021, putting his IBF title first in a match that will take the undisputed title. It was a good performance until he was stopped in the penultimate round, and Canelo brought the four belts home to Mexico.
With knocking out last year’s rival Anthony Dirrell since that career lone defeat, the ‘Sweethands’ are looking for another glorious opportunity.
Benavidez, undefeated in 26 games, is the WBC’s current interim champion, but he has held the full belt twice before. He was stripped of it in 2018 after testing positive for cocaine and was banned from competing for four months.
He went on to win the title back against Dirrell – Plant’s most recent opponent – in 2019 before being stripped again for failing to cross the 168lb limit on the scale before his fight with Roamer Alexis Angulo.
The ‘Mexican Monster’ has long targeted Canelo, and the latter made headlines last year when he said he wanted to skip that match because they both represent the same country. He later reversed these comments, saying he would ‘fight anyone’.
A win over Plant would certainly help Benavidez’s case in the undisputed fight with Canelo, and the champion is predicting that will happen. I said ES . News There are two factors at play.
“I think Benavidez, because he’s stronger, is younger.”
The pair will meet in the ring on March 25 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, with the expected winner to call out Canelo’s name afterwards. It remains to be seen whether it will be a plant rematch or Benavidez’s first crack.
