David Benavidez has dismissed suggestions he is using Saturday’s fight with Caleb Plant as a stepping stone towards a lucrative showdown with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
The super-middleweight rivals are to fight at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand, in what represents the first pay-per-view of the heavy-handed Benavidez’s career, but for all that Alvarez remains the world’s most marketable fighter and that Dmitrii Bivol showed that he can be defeated last year, Benavidez is adamant Plant is his sole focus.
Alvarez retains all four 12st world titles and the nature of profile that makes him his weight division’s highest-grossing figure, but even at a time when the Mexican, preparing to fight John Ryder on May 6, willingly speaks of his desire for a rematch with Bivol at light heavyweight, Benavidez has only one opponent in mind.
“The main focus is Caleb Plant,” the 26 year old told Showtime, who are broadcasting his fight. “We worked exclusively for Caleb Plant. You do the job and then you worry about what’s after the job.
“I watched a lot of tape on Caleb Plant. A lot. There’s a lot of holes in his game I can take advantage of. It’s not easy, but I can rise to the occasion. I don’t want no more easy fights. Back then, I had a lot of fights that didn’t make me work like this.
“He’s always taking, saying I’m fat; I’m this and that; I need to make weight. But I’ve been on weight all week – I definitely gave him the importance he wanted. I gave him all my attention. If back then I hit hard and I didn’t really train like that, now that I’ve really prepared myself I’m even more dangerous, so he should be even more worried.”
Plant, 30, has lost only once, when in 2021 none other than Alvarez stopped him in the 11th round, and he has succeeded in getting under his fellow American’s skin.
“I trained for three-and-a-half, four months,” Benavidez said. “He definitely gave me the extra motivation I needed; I really don’t like this guy and I really do wanna shut him up so I’m going to be pushing for the knockout.
“[But] I don’t like to look for the knockout. You do everything right and the knockout comes. I just gotta stick to the plan."
