NASHVILLE—Caleb Plant knew the decision he was prepared to make would be met with considerable backlash.
He also knows why he’s prepared to travel a path foreign to the average observer.
The unbeaten super middleweight titlist was barely minutes removed from a 10th round stoppage of mandatory challenger Vincent Feigenbutz (31-3, 28KOs) when approached with the possibility of next facing Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. It slightly overshadowed an otherwise festive homecoming, with Ashland City’s Plant enjoying a Fox-televised headliner live from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
The offer, should Plant accept, would force him to abandon plans for a longer-than-normal post-fight break from training, and rush into a proposed May 2 title defense versus the most lucrative attraction in the North American boxing market.
That’s if he were to accept an immediate offer, although he can’t quite understand the need to rush into such a fight.
“They want me to take barely a half-a-month off after a 3 ½ month camp, six weeks of pre-camp…no,” Plant (20-0, 12KOs) told BoxingScene.com. "We’re gonna get to him. “He’s got fights left on his (DAZN) contract.”
Plant raises a valid point, as Mexico’s Alvarez (53-1-2, 36KOs) still has eight fights remaining on the record-breaking contract he signed with over-the-top (OTT) media service DAZN late in 2018.
The reigning World middleweight king is one of several boxers campaigning between 160-168 under contract with the OTT service. The roster includes a pair of England-based super middleweights in Callum Smith (27-0, 19KOs) and Billy Joe Saunders (29-0, 14KOs) as well as reigning middleweight titlists Demetrius Andrade (29-0, 18KOs) and Alvarez’s longtime rival Gennadiy Golovkin (40-1-1, 35KOs) whom he’s already fought twice.
Plant fights under the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) banner, where he is being groomed for an eventual unification clash with fellow unbeaten titlist David Benavidez at some point this year. With that came a reasonable solution.
“Why don’t he go beat Billy Joe and Callum to unify,” suggested Plant. “I’ll go whoop on David Benavidez to unify. Then we'll have all the belts and can fight for all the marbles.
“That sounds a lot better to me.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox