Caleb Plant made a successful third defence of his IBF Super Middleweight title, as he dominated former champion Caleb Truax in a landslide points win in Los Angeles.
Plant won the title in January 2019 against Jose Uzcategui, and was last seen last February, halting Vincent Feigenbutz in ten.
Truax held the same belt in 2017, winning it and then losing it to James DeGale, and had scraped past the unknown David Basajjamivule last time out in January 2020.
Plant opened by investing plenty to the body of Truax, who made a ponderous beginning as he tried to work the champion out.
The speed of ‘Sweethands’ was causing all sorts of problems for his challenger, with quick combinations off an impressive jab forcing Truax to retreat, a solid left hook from Plant ended a dominant second frame for him.
Truax was struggling to gain a foothold in the contest, and especially get past Plant’s jab, and the third and fourth rounds saw more one way traffic as the champion trebled up on his range finder at times, and upped the tempo, although Truax landed an uppercut to end round four.
Truax was being out-punched by four to one at the end of four rounds, and the dominance of Plant and his jab was showing no signs of slowing down.
‘Golden’ Truax’s left eye was beginning to close by the sixth, and he just couldn’t make any sort of impression as he was being jabbed out of the fight.
The challenger showed a lot more ambition in the eighth, landing a solid overhand right and gradually coming forwards more than before, but had to withstand a meaty Plant body assault to end the session.
Although the former champion was slowly closing the distance, Plant was still able to tee off at will, and going into the championship rounds, the champion upped his output, with several combinations finding the mark as he went through his impressive repertoire.
The final two rounds went pretty much like the ones before, and the result was academic.
Three identical scores of 120-108 reflected Plant’s dominance, as he took all twelve rounds. Talk then swiftly turned to what his next move would be following his latest victory, although Plant did sustain an injury early in the fight with Truax.
“I want to become the first undisputed super middleweight champion of all time,” said Plant post fight. “Whoever is in the way of that, it doesn’t matter, you line them up and I’ll knock them down.
“I hurt my hand early in the fight, and I was a little hesitant, but I still think I put on a great performance. I wanted the stoppage, but I still feel my performance was good.”
At heavyweight, Michael Coffie knocked out Darmani Rock in three rounds in a battle of undefeated fighters.
Coffie knocked his opponent down in the third with a left uppercut, and although Rock beat the count, a solid left hook from Coffie on the restart brought an end to proceedings.
Former lightweight world champion, Rances Barthelemy returned at welterweight, and took a ten round decision win against All Rivera. Scores of 100-90, 99-91, and 97-93 sealed the win for the Cuban.
At middleweight, Joey Spencer knocked out Isiah Seldon inside a round.
Elsewhere on the card Brandyn Lynch and Mark Anthony Hernandez fought to an eight round split draw.
Debutants Atif Oberlton and Daniel Garcia picked up wins, Oberlton knocking out Nathan Sharp in three, while Garcia knocked out Jose Delgado in four.
Finally, at super lightweight, Fernando Angel Molina moved to 5-0 with a first round win over James De Herrera.
