by Lem Satterfield
IBF champion Jose Uzecategui vows to give unbeaten Caleb Plant “the beating of his life,” having minimized his 168-pound challenger’s left hand injury as an excuse for pulling out of their initially scheduled date in August.
But when they clash on January 13 at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on FOX (8 p.m. PT/ 5 p.m. PT), the man nicknamed “Sweethands” aims to make Uzecategui pay with mouthfuls of balled up metacarpus comprised of jabs, left hooks and uppercuts.
“I had to have surgery on the area on the back of my hand right above my pinkie knuckle. I was put under, and there were two [metal] pins put in that have since been taken out," said Plant of an injury suffered "five weeks out" during training yet has held up throughout intense sparring sessions with prospect Ahmed Elbiali (17-1, 14 KOs).
"I've been letting it go, really bringing it and punching harder than ever, not just on my back foot but my front foot as well. Jose’s got a bully mentality. As long as people are scared of him, Jose feeds off of that. But everybody knows when you stand up to a bully, they don’t like it."
Unimpressed after watching the 26-year-old Plant (17-0, 10 KOs) overcome title challenger Rogelio “Porky” Medina by unanimous decision in February, the 27-year-old Uzecategui (28-2, 23 KOs) dismissed his performance.
“Caleb Plant earned this shot by beating a Porky Medina that no one cares about anymore, and now he’s getting into the ring with me, and I’m for real. Caleb’s done a lot of trash talking, and I’ve taken it personally,” said Uzecategui, owner of a unanimous decision over Medina from February 2013.
“I truly do not like this guy, but now, we’ll see if he can back it up. I don’t want to simply stop him or knock him out. That would be too easy. I am planning to make it a long night for Caleb Plant. I want to give Caleb Plant the beating of his life throughout the whole fight.”
The Venezuelan-born Uzecategui’s coming off September’s non-title, 172 ½-pound unanimous decision over Ezequiel Osvaldo Maderna as a follow-up to a title-winning ninth-round stoppage of Andre Dirrell in a March rematch of Dirrell’s disqualification victory from May 2017.
But Plant is as critical of Uzecategui as Uzecetagui is Plant.
“In Jose’s last fight with Maderna, a journeyman, all Maderna had to do was stand up to Jose. He was determined to hang tough and not be taken out, and Jose couldn’t get him out of there,” said Plant.
“I’m not sure of I’m in his head or not, mentally, but his scare tactics won't work on me. Jose’s got someone in front of him who is not scared of him even though he’s saying he’s is the boogeyman of the division.”
Plant earned the nickname, “Sweethands,” from admiring amateur teammates, winning a 2011 National Golden Gloves championship at 178 pounds and being named an alternate at 165 pounds for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team in London.
Although returning from an 11-month ring absence, Plant does not expect ring rust to be a problem. In fact, “Sweethands” expects to add more polish to his finish beyond his performance against Medina, who has gone the distance with former champion James DeGale and been stopped by ex-titleholders Badou Jack, David Benavidez and Luis Ramon Campos.
"We had a great game plan going into the Medina fight, knowing we had to be focused for 12 rounds because he's got game-changing power in both hands. My job was just to go in there and apply that. Medina landed about 16 percent of his punches, which averages out to about 5 1/2 punches for 12 rounds," said Plant.
"I don't know anyone else who has done that to Medina.It's all about the small, subtle things that have a snowball effect, turning into big things by the end of the fight. We were able to neutralize what Medina does best and make it look easy. I'm sure that Jose will be a little tougher, but I still expect to make this fight look easy."
