Caleb Plant is known more for his boxing ability than his power, but that didn’t prevent him from predicting a knockout Saturday night.
The unbeaten IBF super middleweight champion promised during a virtual press conference Thursday to dominate and stop Caleb Truax in their 12-round, 168-pound title fight in Los Angeles. Truax has lost inside the distance twice – in the 12th round versus Daniel Jacobs in April 2015 and in the first round against Anthony Dirrell a year later.
“It’s gonna be a dominant performance and he’s getting stopped,” Plant said. “So, either his team can throw in the towel or I’ll throw in the towel for him, or the ref can step in and do his job.”
The 28-year-old Plant (20-0, 12 KOs) has won each of his two title defenses by technical knockout, although both of those opponents appeared overmatched. Plant stopped Mike Lee (21-1, 11 KOs) in the third round of their July 2019 bout at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and beat mandatory challenger Vincent Feigenbutz (32-3, 28 KOs) by 10th-round technical knockout last February 15 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
Handicappers have installed the Ashland City, Tennessee, native as at least a 45-1 favorite to top Truax, another IBF mandatory challenger.
“It’s going down with me getting my hand raised, in spectacular fashion,” Plant said. “Like I said, I don’t see this fight going 12 rounds. So, people love knockouts. They should tune in.”
FOX will broadcast Plant-Truax as the main event of a tripleheader from Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall (8 p.m. EST; 5 p.m. PST). The 37-year-old Truax (31-4-2, 19 KOs, 1 NC), a former IBF super middleweight champ from St. Michael, Minnesota, is confident that his determination and pressure will provide Plant with a much more difficult fight than Plant and others anticipate.
“Every guy I fight, they’ve had determination,” Plant said. “Every guy I fight, they come to bring the pressure. Every guy I fight, they come to walk me down, they come to cut off the ring. And what happens? I wind up throwing more punches than them, I wind up landing more punches than them, whether it’s [former champ] Jose Uzcategui or any of the last two guys I fought. So, you know, all that sounds good. It sounds good for the media, but when that bell rings, it’s a different story.”
FOX’s telecast also will include a 10-round heavyweight bout between Philadelphia’s Darmani Rock (17-0, 12 KOs) and Brooklyn’s Michael Coffie (11-0, 8 KOs). An eight-round middleweight match that’ll pit Joey Spencer (11-0, 8 KOs), of Union City, California, against Isiah Seldon (14-3-1, 5 KOs), of Somers Point, New Jersey, will be televised as well.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
