IBF Super Middleweight champion Caleb Plant (21-0) returned to the ring retaining his title and remaining undefeated in a unanimous decision win against Caleb Truax (31-5-2). This was his first successful title defense against a former world champion.
Caleb Plant came into the bout as the IBF Super Middleweight champion, winning the title in a bout against Jose Uzcategui in January 2019. He had successfully defended the belt twice, both coming by knockout. His most recent defense coming in his last fight in February 2020 in a 10th round knockout win against Vincent Feigenbutz.
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Caleb Truax, a 37-year-old veteran fighter, previously reigned as IBF Super Middleweight champion in 2017. He defeated James DeGale by majority decision. He unsuccessfully defended the title against DeGale by losing in his very next fight in a unanimous decision. This was Truax’s first shot at a world title since losing the title.
The early rounds of the fight saw Plant used his movement, faints, combinations to successfully land shots, but Truax handled them well and kept moving forward. Truax had some slight success but was unable to do enough to win rounds. Through the first five rounds, Plant landed 68 punches to Truax’s 18.
While Plant continued to put the pressure on Truax, using his jab and movement to set up bigger shots, Truax remained steadfast. He steadily moved forward, throwing shots with reckless abandon, all for little to no results.
Caleb Plant was awarded a unanimous decision win, with all three judges scoring the fight 120-108. He landed 31% of his punches for the entire fight, landing 179 total blows. Of his landed punches, 124 were power punches (any punch that is not a jab).. Meanwhile, Caleb Truax landed just 12% of his total punches across the entire fight.
In his post-fight interview, Caleb Plant addressed what his plans were in 2021 and if he could potentially face unified WBC and WBA Super Middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez saying, “I want to become the first undisputed super middleweight champion of all-time so whoever’s in the way of that doesn’t matter.”
When asked how he matched up against Canelo, Plant responded, “I feel like I’m the best super middleweight in the world. Whoever’s in the way of me becoming the first-ever undisputed champion, you line them up, I’ll knock them down.”
Canelo Alvarez is scheduled to defend his WBC and WBA Super Middleweight titles against mandatory challenger Avni Yildrim. That fight would be followed by a potential unification bout with WBO Super Middleweight Billy Joe Saunders during Cinco de Mayo weekend, pending the result of his fight with Yildrim.