By: Sean Crose
“Just trying to get that Charlo fight,” Caleb Plant tells Fight Hub‘s Marcus Hayes in an interview posted Tuesday night. “That’s what we want next.” Without doubt a matchup between former IBF super middleweight titlist Plant and current WBC middleweight titlist Charlo is an intriguing proposition. Indeed, Tennessee native Plant makes it clear that he’s ready to get it on with the older (by one minute) of the Charlo twins, Jermall and Jermell. “I don’t need a tuneup going into that fight,” says Plant. “It doesn’t matter if I’ve been off a little bit. I want that fight right next.” Plant goes on to indicate that a bout between himself and Charlo would be an easy one to make.
“I’m not hard to make a fight with,” he said, “and I ain’t hard to find.” Two weeks ago, Charlo fought for the first time in over two years. Although he soundly defeated the brash Jose Benavidez, Plant makes it clear talking to Hayes that he wasn’t a big fan of Charlo’s performance. “It wasn’t nothing spectacular,” he says of Charlo’s comeback fight. “He’s in there against a much smaller guy. He got his job done. He won. I’m glad he won. That’s what I wanted, for him to win, so we can make a fight happen.” Again, however, Plant clearly wasn’t left in awe of Charlo’s performance against Benavidez.
“It’s not like I was super impressed or anything like that,” Plant says, “but I’m glad he won…that’s the fight that needs to happen next.” Although he comes across as having an easygoing confidence about himself, Plant is in a less than optimal position at the moment, having lost to the two men regarded as the best in the super middleweight division, Canelo Alvarez and David Benavidez. With fans clamoring for Alvarez and Benavidez to square off in the ring, however, the road may be open for a fight between Plant and Charlo.
Sure enough, both men have clashed before, albeit outside the ring. Last summer, a video clip of Plant smacking Charlo backstage at the Terence Crawford-Errol Spence undisputed welterweight championship throwdown made it’s way across the internet. Plant later said that the smack was in reaction to Charlo yanking his beard. “A man has got a right to defend himself,” he said. “I told him knock that shit off, but he wouldn’t listen.” Clearly there’s a very lucrative way for each man to settle things once and for all.
