Caleb Plant’s fight against Trevor McCumby has been added to the Canelo Alvarez vs. Edgar Berlanga undercard, which will take place on September 14th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Canelo-Berlanga will be shown on DAZN and PBC on Prime Video PPV. The former IBF super middleweight champion Plant’s fight against McCumby (28-0, 21 KOs) was postponed due to McCumby’s cut in training.
Dan Rafael reports that Plant-McCumby will no longer be on a non-PPV PBC Prime card as planned. It’s now being packaged with Canelo’s card.
Potential Rematch with Canelo?
Plant’s rationale for fighting McCumby seems obvious for these reasons:
- It’s a winnable one. McCumby is seen as no threat to Plant, and it should be an easy win unless his loss to David Benavidez last year took something out of him.
- Plant wants a rematch with Canelo due to the big money
- Being seen on Canelo’s undercard helps set the table for a rematch. A Canelo-Plant rematch is a tough sell, but it would be more palatable if Caleb looked like gold against the little-known McCumby. It’s still a bad idea for Canelo to fight Plant again so soon after knocking him out in 2021.
With the Canelo-Berlanga event on September 14th competing with a UFC card on the same night in Las Vegas, it’s important that the undercard be loaded with as many names as possible.
Undercard Concerns
Plant, 32, partially serves that purpose, but his fight against the little-known 14-year professional McCumby isn’t a big enough name to guarantee success for the card. Even hardcore boxing fans have never heard of McCumby. Plant must have been desperate to fight this guy.
Canelo will need a lot more than the struggling Plant to bring in the buys and sell tickets. Plant has lost two out of his last three fights and will be coming off an 18-month layoff when he fights on September 14th.
Hopefully, McCumby will not suffer additional injury setbacks because that’s the last thing Plant needs. He can’t afford to spend a lot of time waiting for McCumby to be healthy enough to fight.
Given the boxing public’s lack of interest in Canelo’s fight against Berlanga, he may need more than Plant added to his undercard to pique fans’ interest.
Berlanga is seen as an utterly undeserving fighter who is a step down from Canelo’s last opponent, Jaime Munguia. PBC and Matchroom need to spice up the undercard with some fighters fans want to see because Plant-McCumby is not it.
Last Updated on 08/02/2024
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