Resendiz outpoints Plant in major upset, wrecks plans for Charlo fight
Charlo returns from 18-month layoff to do his part in one-sided destruction of LaManna; Hernandez, Lucero shine in victories
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Massive underdog Armando Resendiz was supposed to be light work for Caleb Plant on his way to a major grudge match in the fall against rival Jermall Charlo, but Resendiz paid that no mind.
Instead, Resendiz took control of the fight in the second half with his big-time pressure, dominated the late rounds, and won a split decision and the WBA interim super middleweight title in the main event of the Premier Boxing Champions on Prime Video card on Saturday night at Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Judge David Sutherland somehow found a way to score it 115-113 for Plant but the other two judges, Steve Weisfeld and Max De Luca, both had it 116-112 for Resendiz, who ruined plans for a long-awaited fight between Plant and Charlo.
In the co-feature, Charlo did his part to set up the fight with Plant when he retuned from an 18-month layoff and scored three knockdowns en route to stopping overmatched Thomas LaManna in the sixth round of a one-sided beating. Then he had to sit by and helplessly watch the big fight and payday go down the drain.
Plant was coming off a ninth-round knockout of then-unbeaten Trevor McCumby to win the vacant interim 168-pound belt in September and Resendiz, in just his second super middleweight bout and first scheduled 12-rounder, was supposed to be a tune-up fight.
But Resendiz, who proudly announced a few days before the fight that he was about to become a father for the first time with a son on the way, was intensely motivated and fought like it.