As the brass at Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) maps out the battleplan for the year ahead, among the list of priorities is bringing greater clarification to the super middleweight division.
With unbeaten titlists Caleb Plant and David Benavidez lined up to make mandatory title defenses in the first half of 2020, the idea—assuming they emerge victorious—is to produce a head-on collision in the back half of the year. Such a fight continues to create intrigue, along with mixed emotions on whom will prevail. Benavidez (22-0, 19KOs) enjoyed a get-back year in 2019, reclaiming the World Boxing Council (WBC) 168-pound title which he was forced to vacate a year prior after testing positive for cocaine during random drug testing as conducted through the WBC’s Clean Boxing Program (CBP) which also resulted in a suspension. The incident not only left him beltless but without a fight for more than a year before returning last March.
A knockout win over fringe contender J’Leon Love paved the way for Benavidez to re-enter the title fray. The Phoenix, Arizona native prevailed, scoring a 9th round stoppage of Anthony Dirrell last September to regain his belt three months ahead of 23rd birthday. The win also leaves him directly behind England’s Callum Smith (27-0, 19KOs, as the two are generally regard as the best super middleweights in the world.
His impressive run since returning to the ring has also left an impression on his boxing peers, enough to where they like his chances in a unification clash versus Plant.
“I’m going with Benavidez,” Abner Mares, a former three-division titlist insisted during the most recent edition of Fox Sports’ Inside PBC Boxing, for which he serves as an expert analyst. “I’m gonna go with Benavidez because he is just… strong. He’s young and he is a big guy for that weight class.”
Before he can get there, Benavidez still has to get past mandatory challenger Avni Yildirim. They two await their marching orders for such a bout, with hopes of it taking place in the first quarter of 2020.
Meanwhile, Plant (19-0, 11KOs) is merely a month away from his own mandated title defense—and one which comes in the form of a long overdue homecoming headliner.
The 27-year old from Ashland City, Tennessee—who now lives and trains in the greater Las Vegas area—is currently due to face Germany’s Vincent Feigenbutz (31-2, 28KOs), with the International Boxing Federation (IBF)-ordered title fight to take place February 15 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, roughly 30 minutes from Plant’s hometown.
The bout will mark the second title defense for Plant, who is rapidly approaching the one-year anniversary of his title-winning effort over Jose Uzcategui last January in Los Angeles. The feat topped the inaugural edition of the rebranded PBC on FS1 series, peaking at just under 1 million viewers and remaining the network’s most watched boxing event in history.
Plant’s lone fight since then came in a three-round wipeout of previously unbeaten Mike Lee in a July clash which aired live in primetime on Fox. The free-to-air network will also carry his upcoming title defense, one which former two-division champ and current Inside PBC Boxing guest host Shawn Porter believes will be his next step towards super middleweight supremacy.
“I’m going with Caleb Plant,” Porter (30-3-1, 17KOs) said in countering Mares’ assessment on the show, for which he also serves as an expert analyst. “He’s sharper, he’s sharp, fast and just so intuitive and smart in the ring. That’s the key to beating Benavidez.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox