Jose Benavidez Sr. is willing to let bygones be bygones with Caleb Plant.
The head trainer and father of David Benavidez explained in a recent interview that he was more than willing to patch things up with Plant.
Phoenix’s David Benavidez, 26, throttled Plant, 30, over 12 rounds in their alluring super middleweight bout to win a unanimous decision last Saturday night at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. After the fight, David Benavidez and Plant embraced in the ring, seemingly putting to bed their years-long antagonism.
Pre-fight publicity to the event was marked by vitriolic exchanges between the Benavidez and Plant camps; their feud goes back nearly five years. Plant, Ashland City, Tennessee, indicated that their testy relationship reached a low when he claimed that Jose Benavidez started to bring up his deceased daughter, Alia, who passed away in 2015 at the age of 19 months due to a brain abnormality.
Benavidez Sr. said he was moved by Plant’s show of contrition after Saturday’s fight. Benavdiez Sr. also made it clear he apologized to Plant for his remarks about Plant’s daughter, going so far as to say we would even be friends with him.
“I was surprised, I wasn’t even thinking about talking to him,” Jose Benavidez Sr. told FightHype.com. “He came and he apologized, man that was the best feeling that can fill a man, you know. I’m a man and if I’m wrong I’m gonna go and apologize. But some people, they don’t do that. But he did that and to me that means a lot. He told me, ‘I know we can’t be friends,’—nah. F— all that sh!t. I can be your friend, you know. I’m not ashamed to say that. I gave him a big hug and I let it go. I told him, ‘nah, man, you don’t want to be my friend—I want to be your friend.’ I let it go.
“At the end of the day he’s a good guy. He’s very dedicated too. He’s a good parent and I told him, I’m gonna tell you, ‘I didn’t say that.’ [Plant said], ‘but can you apologize.’ Yes, I can apologize, you know. Sh!t I have no ego man. I don’t have a problem saying that. I don’t have a problem.
“I have my own kids. I would never say sh!t like that. I don’t know who the f–k would say that. I would never f— with the family of somebody.”