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By Jim Calfa: David Benavidez says he needs a win over Caleb Plant to get the fight that he wants against Canelo Alvarez. Former IBF super middleweight champion Plant (21-1, 12 KOs) is kind of in the same boat, needing a victory over Benavidez (25-0, 22 KOs) to get a rematch with Canelo, who stopped him in the tenth round last November.
It’s more important for Plant, 29, to start picking up wins over highly ranked fighters like Benavidez if he wants a second shot at Canelo, given that the Mexican already beat him.
Unless Plant does something extraordinary like defeating Benavidez, it’s safe to say he’ll never get another opportunity to fight Canelo again.
Benavidez, 25, is fighting David Lemieux (43-4, 36 KOs) for the interim WBC 168-lb title next month on May 21st at the Gila River Arena, Glendale, Arizona.
“There’s no beef. I’m just going to beat the s*** out of him,” said David Benavidez to Behind The Gloves when asked where the bad blood came from between him and Caleb Plant.
“It’s just boxing, this is what it is. Sometimes you get a person you don’t like and there’s no beef behind it. I don’t like him and he doesn’t like me.
“He was talking a lot of s*** and we went to see what it was about. I think now, we’re closer than ever to make the fight happen,” said Benavidez about Plant.
“I got this fight with David Lemieux, and I think it’ll give me more leverage to make this fight happen. After I get this WBC interim [168-lb] title, there will be no reason for him not to fight me, especially after I give him the opportunity to fight.
“But first I got to go in there and win the title. He [Plant] was saying that I have nothing to offer him, and he was going to fight Canelo. He didn’t want to put that in jeopardy.
“Now that he fought Canelo and he needs somebody else to fight, I’m here. He’s fighting Anthony Dirrell supposedly. I feel like I don’t like Caleb Plant, but in all honesty, I need him.
“I need him to get to the next level. He fought Canelo, so I need to fight the people to fight Canelo. He needs me. Who else is he going to fight after?
“I feel like we both need each other. Nothing is for sure, but for me, I just feel like what I have to do is just get the fight of me fighting Canelo out of my head.
“I’ve been the mandatory for two fights. Now he’s saying doesn’t have to fight the mandatory that’s fighting over there. What I’m going to do now is hopefully fight Caleb Plant, hopefully, I fight Andrade, and hopefully, I fight Charlo.
“That’s my plan going forward, but first things first, I have to take care of my business on May 21st, and then we’ll take it from there after that,” said Benavidez about his fight against Lemieux.
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