Plant focused on Truax, says Canelo fight will happen

Plant discusses his career goals and immediate future in this lengthy conversation with Fight Hub TV.

IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant took some time to chat with Marcos Villegas about his upcoming fight against Caleb Truax, his rationale behind it, and what he’s looking to accomplish afterwards. Plant covers a lot of subjects, but none bigger than a prospective fight against Canelo Alvarez. Check out some excerpts from the interview below...

Plant on how he would sum up his 2020:

“Well, it started off really good. In February, the hometown fight, we had a huge crowd, great performance, everything went well. The, of course, with COVID and everything shutting down, it’s been a bit different. But I’ve been staying active, I’ve been staying in the gym, in the weight room, and really just chillin’ in the house...”

On what he wants to accomplish in 2021 and if he believes he can become undisputed by the end of the year:

“That’s the plan. You know, it takes two to tango, I can’t just say for sure but that is definitely the goal. First things first, I’m ready to handle my business January 30th against Caleb Truax. It’ll be a back-to-back mandatory for me, which is why we’re taking this fight. That way I can do back-to-back mandatories and that leaves me a year’s worth of open and free fights, to fight whoever, wherever — and that’s to make unification fights and become first undisputed super middleweight of all time.”

On if he plans to fight world champions only for the rest of the year after dealing with Truax:

“Exactly. That’s the goal. That’s what we’re shooting for, that’s what we’re aiming for. But again, it takes two to get in there and dance and especially with the unification fight — I’m not the person who makes my fights but sometimes I guess those things can be tricky. But that’s the goal and definitely the reasoning behind [taking this fight with Truax].

“I know some people have been wondering why but like I said, ‘Why fight Caleb Truax?’, again, he is my mandatory and if I take a voluntary now then somewhere later in the year I’m gonna have to fight him anyways.”

On how close a fight against Canelo was back when it was being discussed last year:

“It’s a fight that I wanted, and it’s a fight I raised my hand for and I’m a fighter, that’s what I’m wanna do. But my manager, Luis De Cubas, he just felt like with that being five weeks away, which is about four weeks of training, he felt like for a fight of that magnitude — he didn’t want to pull the trigger on it.

“You know, I respect Luis for that because he is the best at what he does and that would’ve been a fight that he would’ve made a big payday on too. But he was looking past that and was looking for what’s in my best interest. I’m a fighter, I want to fight, that’s what I love to do so...but that’s why I have a great team around me and they said ‘let’s slow down’...You guys can rest assured that at some point we’re gonna have our showdown.”

On if he plans to directly target Canelo after this fight of if he’ll wait to see how things pay out:

“Well, I’ll leave that to my team. I feel like we are close to getting a Canelo fight done, but again, I’m not really too focused on what’s ahead or what’s down the road. I’m focused on January 30th, Caleb Truax. There’s been people before who weren’t focused on him and weren’t focused on the plate of food in front of them and they got their belt taken.

“After (Traux) hopefully we can get the Canelo fight made. But you can’t lose your belt twice out of the ring and expect to be at the front of the line to fight Canelo [referencing David Benavidez]. That’s not how this works...You cannot lose your belt to cocaine and then get a freebie to get it right back just to turn around and lose it again on the scale and expect to be at the front of the line for a unification fight.”