David Benavidez handed Caleb Plant his second career loss last night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena when he came from behind to win their long-awaited grudge fight.
After years of needle, the feud came to a head in front of a packed house in Nevada on Saturday night with Benavidez eventually living up to his favourite's tag after an early onslaught from his rival. The pair had been going back-and-forth for years, and finally settled their feud in an interim WBC title fight that should finally set up Benavidez for a shot at undisputed champion Canelo Alvarez.
The bout started in Plant's favour, with the underdog boxing cleverly at range and keeping himself safe, picking up rounds for the first half of the fight to race into an early lead. By the halfway stage Plant was ahead on two scorecards, with one judge giving his rival just one round.
But Benavidez came into his own from the seventh, and had Plant in serious trouble by round eight when he hurt the former world champion with big shots. Referee Kenny Bayless imposed himself in controversial fashion when he stopped the fight in order to have a Plant cut checked as Benavidez was taking control, and continued to cause trouble as the rounds progressed.
But the unbeaten Arizona native took control of proceedings and didn't drop another round until the final bell to progress his unbeaten run to 27 fights. It was a major step up in competition for the fighter, who is believed to be one of the most avoided fighters in the sport.
And with his maintained position as the WBC interim super-middleweight champion, a bout with Alvarez could now be ordered by the governing body. The pair battled on pay-per-view, and a showdown between Alvarez and Benavidez could be one of the biggest fights in world boxing.
"I'm a little disappointed I didn't get the stoppage," Benavidez admitted in his post-fight press conference. "But you could see on his face he was really bloody and I was really imposing my will. I beat him up really good and I'm not really satisfied because I didn't get the knockout.
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"But this was a great way to get a victory, a dominating performance. It was a great performance, but there are a lot of things I could tweak in my game to make sure I get the stoppage next time. But also, I feel like I don't want to throw Kenny Bayless under the bus but he didn't call Caleb out in any of the clinches throughout the whole fight."
And he believes that now Alvarez "needs" a fight between the pair to happen, adding: "A big fighter like me, this was a fight as you could see, a huge fight. So I think it would be huge pay-per-view numbers. But let's take it back to fighting, I want to prove myself, Canelo's proved himself and I think he needs to give me the opportunity too.
"It's not like I'm begging for something, I've been mandatory for the last two fights and this is something I've earned. Especially after this fight, I've showed that I belong and I deserve to be in there."
