Boxing
It is tempting for Caleb Plant to look ahead to a Jermall Charlo fight but he refuses to do so
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Caleb Plant came across Jermall Charlo’s jaw with a swift left-handed smack that reverberated through the boxing landscape from the bowels of T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on July 28, 2023.
If the two men are successful in their respective fights May 31 — Plant against Armando Resendiz and Charlo against Thomas Lamanna — they could close out their unfinished business in a bout this fall.
From Plant’s vantage point, he ended the situation right then and there after feeling disrespected by Charlo backstage during the Terence Crawford-Errol Spence Jr weigh-in.
Still, while the former IBF super middleweight world champion conceded that a more formal fight against Charlo is tempting, Plant is refusing to underestimate Resendiz, his former sparring partner.
“I feel like I have closure in the situation, I feel like I’m the one who closed that situation out, but I’m always looking to face big names in the super middleweight division,” Plant told DAZN News recently, “and [Charlo's] a super middleweight now so he’s one of ’em.”
Plant added: “But, other than that, I don’t really care anything about that fight right now. It’s not important for me to want that fight or focus on that fight.”
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That refusal to be distracted is something Plant has learned from being a student of the fight game and watching many boxers fall victim to overlooking their opponents for a bigger name and larger purse bout, only to suffer an upset loss before ever crossing that bridge.
“There’s been a million fighters in the past, they put them on the same show, they say ‘hey, if you win you get to fight each other,’” Plant continued. “And they’re so busy thinking about the next fight or the big fight or whatever they want to call it, and they wind up not even winning the fight in front of them.
“I won’t make that same mistake.”
Since Plant and Charlo had their run-in, Charlo (33-0, 22 KOs) delivered a unanimous decision win over Jose Benavidez Jr in November 2023, but has been inactive after that victory.
Plant (23-2, 14 KOs) produced a ninth-round TKO of Trevor McCumby in September 2024.
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