Fans want to see Caleb Plant in against Christian Mbilli to see how well he does against one of the top five contenders in the super middleweight division.
This would give Plant the chance to show that he can beat one of the elite contenders, which he’s never done during his decade-long career.
Plant’s claim to fame is from beating lesser guys, many of them bottom feeders,m and the paper champion that he beat to briefly become the IBF 168-lb belt holder in 2019.
Fighting the #1 ranked WBC contender, Mbilli (28-0, 23 KOs), would give Plant a chance to show that she can beat a top-five guy.
Plant’s Career = All Smoke and Mirrors
Plant hasn’t beaten a top five-level fighter in five years since his narrow 12-round unanimous decision win over IBF super middleweight champion Jose Uzcategui in 2019.
Caleb Plant’s Best wins:
– Jose Uzcategui: Paper champion
– Anthony Dirrell: 38-years-old
– Trevor McCumby: Unproven fringe contender
– Caleb Truax: 40-year-old
– Mike Lee: Fringe contender
– Vincent Feigenbutz: Unknown fighter
– Rogelio Medina: Journeyman
That was against an average fighter that didn’t belong as a champion. After losing to Plant, Uzcategui was promptly beaten by Lionel Thompson and Vladimir Shishkin. So, you can’t count Uzcategui as being a true top-five fighter.
Plant has never beaten a top five-level during his career, which is why it’s important for him to fight Mbilli to show that he belongs among the best fighters because he’s not shown he deserves praise for beating tomato cans his entire 10-year career. It’s been all smoke and mirrors with Plant.
We saw that the former IBF 168-lb champion Plant (23-2, 14 KOs) could handle a non-top five fighter, #8-WBA ranked Trevor McCumby (28-1, 21 KOs) last Saturday night with his ninth-round knockout of the little-known fighter at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The fighters that Plant wants next are far removed from his galaxy, and he’s been too inactive lately to get any of them interested in fighting him. The guy that Plant hand-picked for his comeback fight last Saturday, McCumby, was a complete unknown. Even hardcore boxing fans had never heard of him.
‘Sweethands’ Plant Must Prove Himself
So, it looked silly for Plant to call out Canelo Alvarez, Edgar Berlanga, and Jermall Charlo after the fight. With a 2-2 record in Plant’s last four fights, and his only wins coming against the unknown McCumby and 38-year-old Anthony Dirrell, he’s not done enough to get a fight against Canelo, Berlanga or Jermall.
Plant was knocked down by McCumby in the fourth and hurt a couple of times in the early going. The fight could have ended by a knockout if McCumby had more of a ring IQ because he looked clueless when Plant made a small adjustment by fighting in close.
Plant needed to take the fight to the inside for him to rally and stop the Illinois native McCumby, who showed that he didn’t know how to fight on the inside and was slow in making adjustments to take the contest to the middle of the ring.
Mbilli is an excellent inside fighter. So, if Plant couldn’t handle Mbilli’s outside game, he wouldn’t be able to use a plan B of fighting on the inside like he did against McCumby.
After the fight, which was a very difficult one for Plant, he called out Canelo Alvarez, Edgar Berlanga, and Jermall Charlo, saying he wanted one of them next. However, that’s likely a pipe dream for Plant unless Premier Boxing Champions wants to offer one of those three an enormous guaranteed purse for a fight that will likely hemorrhage money.
Plant isn’t a big enough name nationally in the U.S. for him to be used to sell a rematch with Canelo, a fight against Berlanga, or a fight against the inactive 34-year-old Jermall Charlo. If PBC tried to sell those contests to the public on PPV, they would be dead on arrival [DOA].
Caleb Plant’s Wish List
Canelo Alvarez
Edgar Berlanga
Jermall Charlo
“When I was sparring, I caught a lot of guys with left hooks while I was back on the ropes. It was one of my better shots. I was trying to catch him but I couldn’t get him clean enough. He adjusted well,” said Trevor McCumby.
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