By Mike Organ
Moments after successfully defending his International Boxing Federation super middleweight title for the second time, Nashville’s Caleb Plant made it clear Saturday who he wants to fight next: undefeated David Benavidez, the current World Boxing Council super middleweight champion.
The 27-year-old Plant (20-0, 12 KOs) retained the IBF title by claiming a 10th-round technical knockout against mandatory challenger Vincent Feigenbutz (31-3, 28 KOs) of Germany on Saturday at Bridgestone Arena.
Plant has made it clear his goal is to unify the title, and that’s why he called out Benavidez (22-0, 19 KOs) of Phoenix. In fact, Plant said he first let Benavidez know he wanted a fight when Benavidez won the title two years ago.
“I want to unify; I want that fight with David Benavidez,” Plant said. “When he won that world title against Ronald Gavril (Feb. 17, 2018) I was standing at the bottom of the stairs. Before he could even get to the bottom of the stairs, I was standing there asking him, ‘When are we going to make this happen?’ I don’t see too many other fighters standing at the bottom of the stairs right after somebody wins saying, ‘Hey, when are we going to get it cracking?'”
Benavidez has a mandatory defense coming up in the spring against Avni Yildirim. Plant said he hopes to fight at least once more this year.
Plant realizes it might be too soon for a fight to come together with Benavidez but said he will continue to push for it.
“I’ve been wanting that. I’ve been pushing for that,” he said. “I know we’re both young in our career. I know they’re trying to build us up and turn that into a bigger fight, but I’m a fighter. There ain’t no sense in waiting.”
Benavidez responded to Plant on Instagram after Plant’s win Saturday and seemed to be just as eager to fight.
“Let’s get this done don’t want to keep the fans waiting,” Benavidez posted.
Benavidez’s last fight was on Sept. 28 when he knocked out Anthony Dirrell in the ninth round in Los Angeles. Benavidez regained the WBC belt in that fight. He had been stripped of it after a positive drug test in 2018.
Photo courtesy of Stephanie Trapp, Fox Sports & PBC
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