Notebook: Benavidez, Plant vow to win, then seek Canelo fight
Okolie ready to pressure Light; BetUS show; Top Rank adding title fights to schedule; Quick hits; a special Show and Tell
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At a time in boxing when it is usually very difficult to get the top fighters to face each other, especially without a protracted negotiation or a bout being made when the fighters are no longer at their best, the showdown between super middleweights David Benavidez and Caleb Plant is one of the exceptions.
Few would argue that it is not one of the most attractive fights that can be made and even though Benavidez is the clear favorite both men have shown an intensity in their belief that they will emerge victorious when then they square off for Benavidez’s WBC interim belt in the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions card on Saturday (Showtime PPV, PPV.com, 9 p.m. ET, $74.99) at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
“I’ve been working extremely hard and I’m super ready,” Benavidez said this week. “All the talk is done. I see Caleb has been doing that grave digging gesture, but he’s digging his own grave. We’re gonna see what that chin is like on Saturday.”
Benavidez was referring to Plant’s callous behavior after his massive one-punch ninth-round knockout of former two-time titlist Anthony Dirrell in his most recent fight in October when he motioned as though he was shoveling dirt on the fallen Dirrell while he still on the mat receiving medical attention.
“We worked so hard. I’m definitely the harder puncher,” Benavidez said, comparing himself to Plant. “I’ve had this power. I’ve just tweaked it and now I’m even stronger. This is a boxer versus a pressure fighter. We’re coming out on top.
“Every time he fights a real true super middleweight, he gets hurt. He’s gonna be in there with the hardest hitting and most accurate fighter in the weight class. We’re gonna see what’s up. I gave him all of my attention. Back in the day I hit hard, but I didn’t really train that hard. Now that I’ve really prepared myself, I’m really dangerous and he should be worried.”
Two-time WBC full titlist Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs), 26, of Phoenix, and Plant (22-1, 13 KOs), 30, of Las Vegas, a former IBF titleholder, have had a long-festering grudge and have professed deep hatred for each other, which Benavidez said has given him an extra boost in his preparation.
“He definitely gave me the extra motivation because I really don’t like this guy and I want to shut him up,” said Benavidez, who said he plans to break Plant’s jaw inside six rounds. “I’m definitely going to be pushing for the knockout every single round.”
Plant, who made three successful title defenses before getting knocked out in the 11th round by Canelo Alvarez in their unification fight for the undisputed 168-pound championship in November 2021, is just as confident.
“The fans are going to see me get my hand raised,” Plant said. “That’s what I’m guaranteeing.”
He addressed Benavidez directly during Thursday’s fight-week news conference.
“You got your newfound muscles that you’ve been showing off all week. Welcome to the club,” Plant told him. “I don’t need the right opponent in front of me to start working hard. I’ve been this disciplined and I’ve walked the straight line. I’ve been doing it since I was a little kid.
“You have a real one in front of you on Saturday. I’m no blown up middleweight, I’m the real deal. You’re gonna see. I feel I’m the better boxer, I have the better IQ and I have more experience. I have the better pedigree and it’s gonna show on Saturday night.
“I’m one of the best in the world at what I do. We’ve yet to see if he can perform at this level, but we’re gonna find out on Saturday.”
Besides settling the personal grudge and the interim belt being at stake the fight is really to determine No. 2 in the division behind Alvarez. Benavidez would love a crack at him.
“If the don’t give me the Canelo fight after (I win) this fight then I don’t really know what else to do,” Benavidez said. “I’m gonna just keep beating who they put in front of me. I’ll let the fans speak for what they want. It would be one of the best fights in the division. There would be a lot of money involved. So, I definitely want the fight, man. I’ve been doing everything I’m supposed to do. The want for the fight has to come from Canelo. If he doesn’t want to fight there really isn’t much I can do.”
Plant would love a rematch with the king and while it may seem unlikely, he can make his case with a strong showing against Benavidez.
“The winner of this fight is right there at the top,” Plant said. “Canelo has that spot right now and I’m super motivated for this fight so that I can eventually right that wrong. First, I’m gonna handle business on Saturday night.”
Benavidez-Plant PPV lineup
Super middleweights: David Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) vs. Caleb Plant (22-1, 13 KOs), 12 rounds, for Benavidez’s WBC interim title
Junior middleweights: Jesus Ramos (19-0, 15 KOs) vs. Joey Spencer (16-0, 10 KOs), 10 rounds
Lightweights: Chris Colbert (16-1, 6 KOs) vs. Jose Valenzuela (12-1, 8 KOs), 10 rounds
Welterweights: Cody Crowley (21-0, 9 KOs) vs. Abel Ramos (27-5-2, 21 KOs), 12 rounds, WBC title eliminator
Okolie vows to pressure Light
WBO cruiserweight titlist Lawrence Okolie vowed that he will apply pressure on mandatory challenger David Light from the first bell when they meet in the Boxxer main event on Saturday (ProBox TV in the U.S., Sky Sports in the U.K., 3 p.m. ET) at AO Arena in Manchester, England.
“I am going to be matching him and overmatching him for pressure and power from round one,” Okolie said. “Saturday's going to come. One of us is going to win and the other one's going to become irrelevant. So, I'm looking forward to it.”
Okolie (18-0, 14 KOs), 30, of England, will be making his third title defense but fighting for the first time in 13 months, mainly due to a contract dispute with longtime promoter Matchroom Boxing, which claims it still has a fight remaining with Okolie.
“He’s coming to win, (which) sets you up for a lot of openings,” Okolie said. “But you don't get to this position by overlooking people, ever. It’s a nice safe place to hide behind being the underdog. When I see him I know what he really is. I'm prepared for what he may bring and will do what I need to do.”
Okolie goes into to the fight with a new trainer in SugarHill Steward after parting ways with Shane McGuigan after six fights together.
“It’s definitely been a new experience training with a great teacher like SugarHill,” Okolie said of the man who also trains heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. “It's very much about positioning, it’s very much the tiniest little things, but it makes a big difference. It gives me a sort of structure. (Instead of) just doing what I want, I find myself paying a lot more attention to detail.”
Light (20-0, 12 KOs), 31, of New Zealand, is coming off his most notable victory, a 10-round split decision over then-unbeaten Brandon Glanton in December in Plant City, Florida, has embraced his underdog role and of being a road warrior.
“I’m not here on somebody else’s terms,” Light said. “I’ve earned the shot. I’m coming to win. I know he's a proud man and he's going to defend with everything he’s got. I could have taken this fight a few years ago, for the money, but I am not here for the money. I’m here for the title.”
Both fighters made weight on Friday. Okolie was right on the 200-pound division limit and Light was 198.25 pounds.
BetUS Boxing Show
If you missed the BetUS Boxing Show live at 1 p.m. ET on Friday on YouTube, please check out the replay (and also subscribe to the YouTube channel). We previewed and picked the much-anticipated David Benavidez-Caleb Plant super middleweight showdown that tops the Showtime PPV card, the Jesus Ramos-Joey Spencer co-feature, the Jose Ramirez-Richard Commey Top Rank/ESPN main event, and cruiserweight titlist Lawrence Okolie’s defense against David Light. We also took viewer questions and comments! Please check out the show here:
Top Rank title fights
Top Rank is getting its May events in order, including the addition of Junto Nakatani against Andrew Moloney for the vacant WBO junior bantamweight title that Kazuto Ioka vacated last month.
Nakatani-Moloney will go on the undercard of Devin Haney’s undisputed lightweight title defense against Vasiliy Lomachenko on May 20 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, sources with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite, confirming a BoxingScene report. That event is expected to be announced next week.
The sources said that Nakatani-Moloney will air live on ESPN just before the beginning of the 10 p.m. ET ESPN+ PPV event that will feature three additional bouts that Fight Freaks Unite has already reported on — the main event, the return of former featherweight and junior lightweight titlist Oscar Valdez in a rematch with Adam Lopez and one other fight not yet finalized.
Also on the ESPN portion of the card, middleweight Nico Ali Walsh, the grandson of Muhammad Ali (8-0, 5 KOs), 22, of Las Vegas, will appear in his first scheduled eight-rounder against Danny Rosenberger (13-9-4, 4 KOs), 32, of Youngstown, Ohio.
Nakatani (24-0, 18 KOs), 25, a Japanese southpaw, made two defenses of the WBO flyweight belt before vacating to move up in weight. He won a junior bantamweight bout in November and now will challenge for the title. He was Ioka’s mandatory before Ioka vacated.
Moloney (25-2, 16 KOs), 32, of Australia, a former WBA “regular” junior bantamweight titlist, has won four fights in a row since going 0-2 with a no decision in a trilogy against Franco in 2020 and 2021.
One week earlier, on May 13 at Stockton Arena in Stockton, California, Jason Moloney (25-2, 19 KOs), Andrew’s twin brother, will face Vincent Astrolabio for the vacant WBO bantamweight title. It will be the co-feature of WBO middleweight titlist Janibek Alimkhanuly’s defense against Steven Butler, which FFU has already reported on even though the card has not yet been announced.
Moloney will be getting his third title shot, having suffered both of his losses in his previous title bouts, by split decision challenging Emmanuel Rodriguez in 2018 in the World Boxing Super Series and by seventh-round knockout to unified champion Naoya Inoue in 2020. Moloney has won four fights in a row since the loss to Inoue.
The Philippines’ Astrolabio (18-3, 13 KOs), 25, whose biggest win came via close decision against Guillermo Rigondeaux 13 months ago, also had the option of fighting for the vacant IBF title but opted for the WBO route. All four bantamweight titles became vacant in January when undisputed champion Inoue relinquished them.
Quick hits
Weights from Las Vegas for the PBC Showtime PPV card Saturday night: David Benavidez 166.6 pounds, Caleb Plant 167.2 (for Benavidez’s WBC interim super middleweight title); Jesus Ramos 153.2, Joey Spencer 153.2; Chris Colbert 134.6, Jose Valenzuela 134; Cody Crowley 145.2, Abel Ramos 146 (WBC welterweight eliminator); Kevin Gonzalez 121.4, Jose Sanmartin 122.4; Orestes Velasquez 142, Marcelino Nicolas Lopez 141.8; Demler Zamora 129.75, Jesus Ibarra 130; Daniel Blancas 167, Nicholas Molina 167.75; Robert Meriwether III 132, Jesus Perez 131.
Weights from Fresno, Calif. for Saturday’s Top Rank/ESPN card: Jose Ramirez 140 pounds, Richard Commey 140 (WBC junior welterweight eliminator); Seniesa Estrada 104.2, Tina Rupprecht 104.8 (WBA/WBC women’s strawweight unification); Antonio Mireles 265.4, Patrick Mailata 321.4; Raymond Muratalla 136.6, Humberto Galindo 136; Charlie Sheehy 134.8, Angel Rebollar 133.4; Jessie James Guerrero 109, Eduardo Alvarez 108.6; Ricardo Ruvalcaba 140.8, Marco Antonio Cardenas 140.4; Subaru Murata 121.6, Jose Negrete 121.4.
Per California State Athletic Commission, purses for Saturday’s Top Rank/ESPN card: Jose Ramirez $1M, Richard Commey $270,000; Seniesa Estrada $200,000, Tina Rupprecht $25,000; Antonio Mireles $6,000, Patrick Mailata $8,000; Raymond Muratalla $40,000, Humberto Galindo $17,000; Charlie Sheehy $6,000, Angel Rebollar $6,000; Jessie James Guerrero $1,500, Eduardo Alvarez $2,500; Ricardo Ruvalcaba $6,000, Marco Antonio Cardenas $4,500; Subaru Murata $2,000, Jose Negrete $5,000.
Show and tell
If you have followed my writing for even a little while you should know that the late, great Hall of Fame junior lightweight and junior welterweight titleholder Arturo Gatti is my all-time favorite fighter. I even named one of our late cats “Thunder” in his honor. Gatti was the single greatest action fighter of his generation and one of boxing’s all-time warriors. He brought drama and passion to every one of his fights and had as much heart as any fighter who ever lived. He moved people. He made people into boxing fans. He always gave everything he had win or lose. I was fortunate to get to know him a bit and cover many of his fights. Beyond just as a fighter, I liked him personally and was devastated when he died in 2009.
The second of the 12 Gatti fights I covered was against fellow Hall of Famer Oscar De La Hoya, a much, much bigger man looking for a name opponent to get back on track against after losing his welterweight title to Shane Mosley in their first fight nine months earlier. Gatti moved up to welterweight to face him at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in what most viewed as a retirement fight. Gatti would cash his biggest check to that point ($1.8 million if memory serves) to be a De La Hoya KO victim and retire. Although De La Hoya did dish out a beating and stopped him in the fifth round, Gatti gave it everything he had and had a few moments and landed some big shots in an underrated action fight. The fight was on March 24, 2001 — 22 years ago on Friday. Here is one of the most prized items in my vast collection. It is a Gatti jacket (still with blood on one of the pockets) that was used in the De La Hoya fight, signed to me by Gatti and gifted to me long after the fight.
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Benavidez-Plant and Colbert-Valenzuela photos: Ryan Hafey/PBC; Okolie-Light photo: Lawrence Lustig/Boxxer; Nakatani photo: Naoki Fukuda; Ramirez-Commey photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank
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Is everyone sleeping on Loma in this fight? Haney is bigger, faster, and younger, and we’ve seen that combo defeat Loma at lightweight. But Haney doesn’t have the power of that version of Lopez, and I still think Haney’s chin is suspect. Loma fights better on the inside, and he’s just as mobile. Either way, I’m glad they made the fight. They may need to do it twice. Controversial SD.
Fingers crossed 2023 is a good year.