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David Benavidez and his team now claim there is no path to a fight with Caleb Plant in September.
They are not wrong about that, though not for the suggested reasons.
BoxingScene.com has learned that a deal has been reached between Plant and Anthony Dirrell in what would be a matchup of former super middleweight titlists. A target date has not yet been established for the fight, which would be the first for both boxers since separate appearances on the same Showtime Pay-Per-View event last November 6 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
The development was learned by BoxingScene.com upon looking into the claim from Jose Benavidez Sr., David’s father and trainer who posted Sunday evening that a fight with Plant was no longer in play.
“Team Benavidez has reached out to Team Plant and unfortunately, Caleb Plant has declined to fight David Benavidez September 2022,” claimed the elder Benavidez. “David is willing to make the best fights happen for the fans, but unfortunately the fighters who the fans want to see, do not want to fight @benavidez300.
“We will continue to prepare hard for his upcoming fight on May 21st against David Lemieux Interim WBC World Super Middleweight Title.”
Plant’s only response to the news was to offer a “cap” emoji in a tweet Sunday evening, suggesting that the other side was telling a lie.
The only real discussion regarding the suggested fight came with initial interest expressed by both fighters to the point of trash talking one another through social media. Talks never evolved beyond loose discussion, since Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) already had a targeted path for next steps in the careers of both fighters.
Plant (21-1, 12KOs) has not fought since his IBF super middleweight title reign came to an end, suffering an eleventh-round knockout to Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in their historic undisputed super middleweight championship clash last November. The fight marked the first career defeat for Plant, a 29-year-old Ashland City, Tennessee native now based out of Las Vegas who held the IBF title since January 2019 when he outpointed Jose Uzcategui in Los Angeles.
Dirrell (34-2-2, 25KOs) enjoyed a far better night at the office on the PPV undercard, scoring a sixth-round knockout of Marcos Hernandez. The win was his first since outpointing Avni Yildirim in February 2019 to enter his second WBC super middleweight title reign. The 37-year-old Flint, Michigan native lost the belt in his first defense, suffering a ninth-round stoppage to Benavidez (25-0, 22KOs) in September 2019 as part of a Fox Sports Pay-Per-View event from Staples Center (now Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.
The fight was the last for Dirrell before the pandemic, returning last February in a twelve-round draw with Kyrone Davis atop a PBC on Fox show from Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
There has been past talk of a fight between Plant and Dirrell, who share history though not to the degree of disdain between Plant and Benavidez. Such a fight would make more sense as a first step back for Plant, rather than waiting out the fight that Benavidez already has scheduled but has hardly discussed.
Benavidez will enjoy a second straight hometown appearance, as the former two-time super middleweight titlist will next face David Lemieux. The vacant interim WBC super middleweight title will be at stake for the May 21 Showtime headliner, which will air live from Footprint Center in Benavidez’s hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. Benavidez headlined the venue in his last fight, a seventh-round stoppage of Davis last November.
BoxingScene.com understands that the plan from there is to match the winners of Benavidez-Lemieux and Plant-Dirrell in a fight later this year. Such a fight will come as Alvarez (57-1-2, 39KOs) has tied up the super middleweight titles, with plans to move up for a challenge of WBA light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol (19-0, 11KOs) on May 7 and—with a win—a trilogy match with Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin (41-1-1, 36KOs) on September 17.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox