Caleb Plant retained his IBF super middleweight title with a shutout win over former titlist Caleb Truax, keeping Plant’s path to a huge fight with Canelo Alvarez later this year clear for the time being.
Plant won on scores of 120-108 across the board. Bad Left Hook also scored the fight 120-108 on a pair of separate unofficial cards.
The 28-year-old Plant (21-0, 12 KO) had no real trouble with the 37-year-old Truax (31-5-2, 19 KO), largely overwhelming the veteran with his speed, particularly off his jab. Even what Plant thinks is a broken hand didn’t really factor into the fight or become seriously noticeable, and Truax simply didn’t have anything in his arsenal to trouble Plant, though he did get through with the occasional solid right hand.
“I kinda hurt my hand early in the fight, and I was maybe a little bit hesitant at times, but I still feel like I put on a great performance. I didn’t get touched, really,” Plant said.
The fight with WBC and WBA titleholder Alvarez would likely come late this year, sometime between September and December, as Canelo is already set to fight WBC mandatory challenger Avni Yildirim on Feb. 27, and has a deal reportedly in place to unify with WBO titleholder Billy Joe Saunders in early May.
But Canelo is the fight that Plant wants, obviously, and barring any significant damage to the hand, or Canelo losing between now and then, it seems likely to be next for the Tennessee native.
“That’s my goal. I want to become the first undisputed super middleweight champion of all time,” Plant said. “I feel like I’m the best super middleweight in the world. Whoever is in the way, you line ‘em up, I’ll knock ‘em down.”
