Caleb Plant (23-2, 14 KOs) kept his career alive with a ninth-round technical knockout win over Trevor McCumby (28-1, 21 KOs) to claim the WBA interim super middleweight title in their undercard fight on Saturday night at theT-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The former IBF 168-lb champion Plant was coming off an 18-month layoff, and he did not look like his old self early on, getting hurt in rounds one, two, and four. Plant was clearly bothered by the power, speed, and explosiveness of McCumby early on.
McCumby knocked Plant down with a right hand to the body in the fourth round. ‘Sweethands’ Plant was backing up at the time and not in a good position to take the punch to the body.
Affter the fourth, Plant adjusted, forcing an inside battle against McCumby by pressuring him to the ropes and landing accurate shots. In a huge mistake, McCumby allowed Plant to keep him there for long stretches.
In between rounds, McCumby’s corner didn’t instruct him to stay off the ropes until the seventh round, but by then, he’d already taken a lot of punishment to the head. He looked like Plant had taken the fight out of him due to the time he’d spent against the ropes.
In rounds eight and nine, Plant flurried on a tired and beaten-looking McCumby when he had him against the ropes and dominated him in the center of the ring.
When Plant hurt the clapper to signal there were 10 seconds left in the ninth, he unleashed a storm of shots, with many of them catching McCumby to the head. The referee, Allen Huggins, then stopped in with one second remaining in the ninth to halt the fight.
Overall, it was an OK performance by Plant, but not a great effort that suggests that he would beat the better contenders in the 168-lb division. Based on this performance, Plant doesn’t deserve a rematch against unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.
Before tonight’s fight, Plant discussed the WBA elevating him from interim champion to regular champ if David Morrell does not return to 168. Plant said that if he’s elevated to regular champion, Canelo would want to fight him. That’s not likely to happen.
Unfortuntely, Plant did not look good enough to deserve a rematch against Canelo, and McCumby was not a big name. If Plant wants a rematch against Canelo, he needs to beat these types of fighters:
- David Morrell
- Christian Mbilli
- Osleys Inglesias
- Diego Pacheco
- David Benavidez
