Caleb Plant shuts down Caleb Truax, watches Canelo fight next

Caleb Plant retained his IBF super middleweight title with a shutout victory over former titlist Caleb Truax, keeping Plant’s path to a huge fight with Canelo Alvarez later this year for now.

The plant won on scores of 120-108 in all areas. Bad Left Hook also scored the fight 120-108 on a separate pair of unofficial cards.

The 28-year-old Factory (21-0, 12 KOs) had no real issues with Truax, 37 (31-5-2, 19 KOs), largely overwhelming the veteran with his speed, especially out of his jab. Even what Plant thinks was a broken hand didn’t really factor in the fight or become seriously noticeable, and Truax simply had nothing in his arsenal to bother Plant, although he did manage to get by with the occasional solid right hand.

“I hurt my hand a bit at the start of the fight, and maybe I was a little hesitant at times, but I still felt like I had a great performance. I wasn’t really affected, ”Plant said.

The fight with WBC and WBA title holder Alvarez would likely come at the end of this year, between September and December, as Canelo is already set to fight WBC mandatory challenger Avni Yildirim on February 27 and has apparently concluded a agreement to unify with WBO title holder Billy Joe Saunders in early May.

But Canelo is the fight Plant wants, obviously, and unless there is significant damage to the hand, or Canelo loses by then, it looks likely to be the next for the Tennessee native.

“That’s my goal. I want to become the first undisputed super middleweight champion of all time,” Plant said. “I feel like I’m the best super middleweight in the world. Anyone who’s in the way, line up- them, I’m going to knock them over.

Michael Coffie TKO-3 Darmani Rock

Rock, 24, once one of America’s best amateur heavyweights, had a bit of a hype even though, in all fairness, being a great American amateur doesn’t always mean what it used to mean before. He turned pro in 2016 and really didn’t do anything at all, and that must be an extremely disappointing result for him in what qualified as a pretty big step forward against a 34-year-old ex-Marine who didn’t did not. t take up boxing before the age of 29.

It’s not just that Coffie (12-0, 9 KOs) is a genuinely huge human being with heavy power in his hands. Coffie was also fairly easy in boxing with Rock (17-1, 12 KOs) behind a jab, too. The fight was all Coffie for as long as it lasted.

Rock fell on a left hook in the third, and just barely beat referee Jack Reiss 10 points. Another left hook knocked it down again, Reiss counted to seven, and canceled it there, as Rock clearly wasn’t getting up. Rock has a build that – and I’m not trying to be overly critical or an asshole about this – makes it seem like he’s just not particularly dedicated to his craft. And it’s a result that suggests the same thing, in all fairness. It’s worth wondering just from the eye test and how his career has progressed (or hasn’t, more realistically) just how much he really wants to fight as a pro.

“He’s got quick hands, we knew that from the start, but timing beats speed,” Coffie said after the fight. “He wiggles his feet, and when he shuffles his feet he also drops his hand, they’re not in sync. So we had to wait for him to move his feet, then catch him with that left hook.

When asked what he wants next, it’s clear Coffie takes a reasonable approach and seeks to continue to improve in combat to move up the ranks.

“Honestly, I’m trying to find the one above Darmani Rock, I want that person,” he says. “After that, I want someone else who’s above him and then above him. The one that will lead me to this world title.

Joey Spencer TKO-1 Isiah Seldon

It was a mess. Spencer (12-0, 9 KOs) let down Seldon (14-4-1, 5 KOs) twice with right hands, and hard both times, the second allowed him to make a save. In between rollovers, Seldon, 32, son of retired heavyweight hunter Bruce Seldon, launched a series of blatant, ugly and intentional shots at the back of Spencer’s head.

Referee Jerry Cantu took two points from Seldon on the foul, not that it ended up being important. When Cantu ended the obvious mismatch after the second knockdown, Seldon went ballistic yelling and stomping, until Cantu threatened to grab his bag from the corner.

Seldon is truly a club fighter at best, and has now lost three of five, all first-round saves to actual prospects. Brian Kenny and Shawn Porter sort of debated Cantu taking two points instead of just one or the other, but for me Cantu would have had a perfectly fair argument for simply disqualifying Seldon.

It can’t be overstated that he very deliberately, with clear intention, targeted the back of Spencer’s head unprotected in a vulnerable position, and rolled up the good hands he threw away. There’s no way to look at this and say he wasn’t looking to wreak havoc on an obviously illegal attack, an attack that is genuinely dangerous even more than the simple fact that boxing is inherently very dangerous. It was horrible behavior, enough to make you wonder if there was some sort of legitimate beef between the two entering. Look, I’ve seen Seldon fight before, and to be honest the result is what I expected, in the first round and everything. But he was very moved here.

Rances Barthelemy UD-10 All Rivera

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A fairly easy victory here for Barthelemy (28-1-1, 14 KOs), who hadn’t fought since his historically gruesome fight with Robert Easter Jr in 2019. The 34-year-old Cuban has won world titles at 130 and 135, and now says he’s looking to get in with Errol Spence Jr or Terence Crawford at 147, although this was fought off at what appears to be a 144-pound hold, and Barthelemy could probably gain 140 if there was any thing there. There may not be, as Top Rank currently controls all four major titles, although PBC has a secondary Mario Barrios WBA title list.

Barthelemy is never really exciting, and wasn’t around, as he mostly went through the 10 rounds against Rivera (21-5, 18 KOs), a 27-year-old Filipino southpaw and former 140-pound OPBF champion. , for what it’s worth.

This is not the kind of victory that will allow Bartholomew to date Spence, who may be aiming for another Cuban at Yordenis Ugas, but Crawford? Hey he has such limited options that PBC could be petty and give him the top rank. I don’t think this is a fight that Bob Arum is going to pay for because it’s not more exciting or “legitimate” than other cheaper fights, but who knows? It’s a wild world.

Atif Oberlton TKO-3 Nathan Sharp

It was a professional start for Oberlton, a 22-year-old light heavyweight from Philadelphia, who was an outstanding American amateur and decided to turn professional after the 2020 Olympics postponed, which seems like a very good choice because we are likely headed for an outright cancellation of the rescheduled 2021 Olympics.

Oberlton threw some nasty body shots in particular, doubling down on Sharp (4-3, 4 KOs) in the second and third rounds, although Sharp was tough and didn’t fall. The 30-year-old California player was stopped in third, when he was essentially a sitting duck and referee Sharon Sands made a very reasonable call to end what had been a complete mismatch. Oberlton, nicknamed “Lord Pretty Calvo”, is definitely one to put on the prospect list at 175.

Brandyn Lynch D-8 Marcos Hernandez

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Lynch, 29 (10-1-1, 8 KOs), stepped up the competition here. He is Eddie Murphy’s nephew and also the grandson of a professional boxer, which was something to say at the peak of the fight, and the Murphy part was repeated throughout the eight rounds.

I thought Lynch deserved the win here, honestly I had it 79-73 for him, maybe I could have had it 77-75 in his favor if I stole a few more from Hernandez (14-4 -2, 3 KOs) on the activity, which is surely what two judges saw to give us the result of the draw. One judge had 78-74 Hernandez, which seems a long way off, one had 77-75 Lynch, and the other was even at 76-76.

Hernandez, 27, is a tough, rambling type of goalie, and he ended up keeping the gate here, returning after just over a month following a loss to Alantez Fox on December 26. But I really thought Lynch earned this one with sharper shots. and superior precision. I may be wrong, honestly. I don’t think I am infallible. The good news is, I will never be back to check again. But I’ll say this, our friend Marcos Villegas even scored for FOX Julian “J-Rock” Williams had it for Hernandez, so I could have been right here.

If you’re wondering about the numbers from the CompuBox, Lynch landed 99 out of 361 (27%) in total, and 49 out of 159 (31%) of his powerful punches, with Hernandez at 75 of 525 (14%) on the total and 56 of 260 (22%) power punches. So Hernandez had a slight advantage on strong shots, but he was passed 50-19, and Lynch landed 17 shots to the body against Hernandez’s six.