‘It was like a snowball’: Breadman discusses Plant’s loss to Resendiz

Caleb Plant’s trainer breaks down what went wrong in upset loss to Armando Resendiz.

Stephen ‘Breadman’ Edwards is a respected trainer but he had a tough Saturday night where two of his fighters, Caleb Plant and Kyrone Davis, took losses on the PBC on Prime card. Here, Breadman breaks down what transpired in both fights.

On his reaction to Caleb Plant losing to Armando Resendiz

“I think it was going good but I think we had some tough spots in camp and they just seemed to kind of resonate in the fight.

“First off, Resendiz fought really good, he fought his ass off. I knew it was going to be a tough fight because guys that fight who’s underdogs like that got nothing to lose and you just fight a little more free because nobody’s expecting nothing out of you. He got a good coach and the thing is like people just kind of wait Caleb out and try to put pressure on him down the stretch and that’s the way guys are going to fight him.

“What I wanted him to do was win the early rounds without expending so much energy. See sometimes fighters they want to win a round by a mile — just win the rounds, Resendiz wasn’t really throwing a lot of punches early because he don’t have the reflexes that Caleb got, so just win the rounds with our jab and then when the storm comes you still got some gas in your tank.

“But Caleb was kind of like overworking winning the earlier rounds and then the kid landed like a right hand or something when Caleb was in the shoulder roll. I don’t teach Caleb the shoulder roll, that’s something that he just does. And when you get a guy his age, he was a world champion before he met me so like I got to just — I can’t just restrict him completely but I don’t like the shoulder roll ‘cause sometimes you get hit with right hands. Canelo hit him with a right hand in the shoulder roll.

“And it sort of changed the momentum of the fight, the crowd and everybody was getting into it and every time Resendiz would punch it was just building up more and more energy towards it and it was spurring him on...it was like a snowball at that point.

“Caleb didn’t fall apart. He held his own and he was landing some good shots but it was the blood and the look of the fatigue and when you in a fight like that it’s just one thing after the other and it was Resendiz’s night, man. Sometimes it just be like that.

“I don’t have no excuses. It was a tough camp but camps are supposed to be tough. They not supposed to be easy, if a camp is easy then you didn’t do your job.”

On Plant hurting his right hand

“I’m going to be honest with you, I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t know anything about it, he kept that from me. He never mentioned it to me, never said it to me. We was hitting pads, it felt fine. I don’t know when it happened, ya’ll got to ask him specifically because I really don’t know.

“I never heard nothing about it in camp. He got ‘Stitch’ Duran wrapping his hands so I know he got somebody good wrapping his hands, he got the therapeutic Grants — I specifically asked for them because the feel different on the pads...You can ask him when it happened because he never mentioned it one time in sparring and he never mentioned it when we hit the pads.”

On what made him say Plant had a tough training camp and what he was trying to get him to work on

“I can’t get into that. I don’t want to get into that just out of respect for Caleb. If he want to get into it, he can get into it. But it was a tough camp, it was a real tough camp.”

On Kyrone Davis getting dominated by Yoenli Felianco Hernandez

“I don’t have no excuses for that fight, Kyrone had a good camp. Kyrone had a good camp, a really good camp. That kid was just better, that’s it. You got to just tip your hat to a guy...that boy can fight.

“I keep hearing people say ‘why ya’ll pick that opponent?’ We didn’t have no other opponent. Kyrone got to fight, he got to support his family. If you notice, it was May 31st, right? He fought Elijah Garcia June 15th, he was off a whole year after his career best win. He has to eat. He has to feed his family, he has a small child.

“So the only other offer we got was to go overseas to Italy to fight for the same money we was going to fight Elijah Garcia for against the number one contender or the highest ranked contender in the IBF. I wasn’t taking him to Italy for $100,000. I can’t do that to the kid. We gonna spend $20,000 on resources just to get over there and bring our team over there and that kind of stuff, then he come home with $50 grand. I would never do that to him.

“So we had to take the toughest fight. He wasn’t going to get a title shot so that’s the only other person PBC had for him to fight. So I’m not making excuses but that’s just what it was. He’s a fighter, I’m a fighter’s trainer so I just said ‘alright, we just going to take the Cuban.’ Listen, I got to help Ky pay his bills when he don’t fight. $100 grand may seem like a lot of money but you run through that in a year. You don’t bring home $100 grand because you make $100 grand because you got to pay your team and pay your taxes. So he had to live off of that for a whole year so he had to fight.”

On if he thinks Plant got old in the ring against Resendiz

“It’s hard to say off of one fight but I do think that Caleb’s plant with McCumby allowed him to stay inside a little bit more — not allowed him, it prompted him to stay inside a little bit more. All I wanted him to do was box and be smart for this guy. He didn’t have to fight this kid on the inside and I don’t know if ya’ll heard my instructions but I wanted him to box and keep this fight at a distance and I warned him over and over again ‘do not fight this boy on the inside.’

“I’m not going to say he got old but Caleb has had some tough fights and the number one marker in this game of a great fighter is ‘can you still be great once everybody knows your weaknesses?’ Because when good coaches and good teams see that you have flaws in certain areas they’re going to try to exploit it. And if your game can’t keep evolving and getting better to get beyond that point then you’re going to take a couple losses.”

On whether Plant is showing signs that he may need to retire

“I didn’t see his reflexes and his speed go nowhere, he was still fast and sharp. But the punches was bothering him a little bit. I saw the punches bothering him a little bit, and I seen his face busting up a lot and he was just showing the wear and tear of the fights. His skin was breaking up kind of bad and I think that’s one of the things that cost him the victory.

“In the third or fourth round he came back and he had something on his nose. I’m like ‘damn, where did that come from? He barely got hit.’ I don’t want to say [it’s over] just yet, you don’t want to rush to judgement on one night.

“[The body shots] were having a big effect on him, man. I don’t know, they were having a big effect on him, they were. And I think Resendiz is a decent guy but I don’t look at him to have bricks in his hands. So I don’t know. Let me assess that.”