LAS VEGAS – Caleb Plant and Jermall Charlo literally flexed their muscles for their looming showdowns by both making weight ahead of separate super-middleweight bouts Saturday night at Mandalay Bay.
Former IBF and current WBA secondary champion Plant, 23-2 (14 KOs), showed off his right biceps while standing on a scale reading 167.2lbs Friday. He turned to glare at his challenger, Mexico’s Armando Resendiz, who weighed in at 167lbs.
“I’m right where I want to be – feeling good, feeling strong, feeling sharp and ready to put on a show,” Plant said after weighing in.
Resendiz is banking on his preparedness and inspiration.
“For me, this fight means a lot because I am fighting for you guys,” Resendiz, 15-2 (11 KOs), said to members of his Mexican fan base. “This fight is dedicated to my [child], who’s on the way.” Resendiz is expecting a son in the coming days.
As undisputed super middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez awaits a September defense against four-division champion Terence Crawford, Plant and former two-division champion Charlo appear bound to match wits and fists in the next-best bout the division can offer.
It would be a reunion from their July 2023 scuffle when Plant slapped Charlo at T-Mobile Arena here as both attended the Crawford-Errol Spence Jnr weigh-in – with the violence officially sanctioned this time.
There was no such hostility Friday as the 35-year-old Charlo, 33-0 (22 KOs), appeared with his twin brother, former undisputed 154lbs champion Jermell Charlo, and flexed his own muscles to prove his readiness for opponent Thomas LaManna, 39-5-1 (18 KOs).
“Nobody’s calling me easy work. I’m ready,” Jermall Charlo said. “You know what I can do. I’m ready. If he makes a bad move, I’ll knock him out.”
A Plant-Charlo winner would be a prime candidate to fight Alvarez in 2026 should the popular Mexican fighter defeat the underdog Crawford.
Charlo weighed 167.4 pounds and LaManna weighed 166.6.
In other bouts to be streamed on the same Prime Video card, Cuban middleweight Yoenli Hernandez weighed 159.6 for his middleweight bout against Kyrone Davis, who hit the scales at 159 even.
While Hernandez is the No. 1 contender to countryman and fellow Premier Boxing Champions fighter, WBA champion Erislandy Lara, his promoter Luis DeCubas Snr told BoxingScene he is also focused on a move up from No. 6 in the WBO rankings behind unified champion Janibek Alimkhanuly. Davis is ranked No. 7 by the IBF and is also in the WBC and WBA rankings.
“It’s a very interesting fight, but you know who’ll win,” the determined Hernandez said. “I’m going to look for the knockout.”
The card begins with an all-Mexican, junior-middleweight battle between Tijuana’s Isaac Lucero, 16-0 (12 KOs), and the 23-0 (20 KOs) Omar Valenzuela.
Both fighters spoke of the importance of maintaining their unbeaten record and adding another knockout to their ledger, as promoters Tom Brown and Sampson Lewkowicz both touted the matchup’s fight-of-the-night promise.
“Two undefeated Mexicans going at it – you could put this one in a phone booth,” Brown said. “It reminds me of the old glory days of the fights in Southern California, where they’d throw money in the ring after the fight.
Lewkowicz said the facial similarity between Lucero and Canelo Alvarez is not the only thing they share in common.
“You will find out. You all need to see him,” Lewkowicz said.
Lucero weighed 154.8 pounds and Valenzuela was 154.6.