Plant Wins Easily Over Truax To Retain

Caleb Plant looked to dominate Caleb Truax Saturday night and did just that.

The latest title defense for the IBF super-middleweight champ Plant (21-0,12 KOs) saw him cruise against mandatory challenger and former champion Truax (31-4-2, 19 KOs, 1 NC) by unanimous decision to retain in his 3rd title defense from the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles that aired on Fox.

The judge’s scorecards in this one read 120-108 across the board. I fought 120-108 in a fight that is as easy to score to recent memory.

The approach from the opening bell Plant had was to attack the body of Yruax early and often. This makes complete sense considering the 37-year-old Turaux was coming off a period of inactivity and injuries over the past two years. Truax coming into the contest came in the huge underdog and thrived into the bell’s role.

Once the bell rang, however, you could see that Plant was doing everything in the ring. Towards the end of the second round, Plant caught Truax with a nice hook, and from there, it just seemed to be the story of the night.

A nice FLURRY by the champ @SweetHandsPlant at the end of RD2! ? #PlantTruax pic.twitter.com/o1VuVZ14CR

— FOX Sports: PBC (@PBConFOX) January 31, 2021

The difference in this fight for Plant from his last stoppage win against Feginbutz last February, besides the ring attire, was that he looked a lot more measured in his attack this time around. That may have been helped by Truax not being able to get anything going early on. Everyone watching the contest, such as current lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis, observed that many were thinking.

Once plant warm up he gonna hurt homie bad

— Gervonta Davis (@Gervontaa) January 31, 2021

That warmup didn’t happen, but I was pretty much thoroughly beating Truax from bell to bell in this fight.

As the fight pressed on, Truax was bleeding from the nose as the fourth round closed out.  The broadcast as it went along, the jab of Plant to Truax not only was effective but a weapon that Truax had no answer for. During the fight by blow by blow man Brian Kenny such as “spirited effort,” was about the only thing Truax could be labeled with. As the fight reached the halfway mark, Truax was bleeding from both his nose and eyes as he was slowly showing the effects of the punishment from Plant.

With this latest win, Plant will keep his name in the conversation for the eventual unification bout with Canelo Alvarez. Alvarez is slated to fight in February and again in May may push that goal back until the end of the year to become possible. After this fight for Truax, the questions of if this is his last stand in the ring will be swirling around.