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Plant’s Trainer: “You Can’t be Intimidated” Against Benavidez

Wednesday Mar 22 2023, 10:00 pm UTC
3 min read
by Kieran Mulvaney

Caleb Plant’s trainer says he learned a lot about Plant’s opponent David Benavidez the last time his fighter went up against the Phoenix super middleweight. The key, he says, is not allowing the power-punching former titlist to sap the spirit with his relentless pressure.

Stephen “Breadman” Edwards faced off against Benavidez in November 2021 when his fighter Kyrone Davis stepped in as a late replacement for Jose Uzcategui, who had tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug. Benavidez won the contest via seventh round TKO when Edwards threw in the towel with his fighter visibly wilting.

“David keeps bringing that fight up, and I find it funny,” Edwards said on a recent edition of the Showtime Boxing podcast. “To me, it’s just competitive banter. It doesn’t bother me. But he keeps bringing that fight up and saying, ‘His coach knows how to throw the towel in like he did with Kyrone.’ But that’s not an insult to me. I threw the towel in because the kid took the fight on two weeks’ notice and I’m not going to let him get hurt to be a part of David Benavidez’s highlight reel. I wanted to let him leave the ring with some dignity. He didn’t go down, he fought back, he got his pound of flesh, and he didn’t act like a coward like a lot of David’s opponents, who just ball up and let him beat on them. Kyrone was actually fighting back and landing his shots. He earned his respect that night; he didn’t win, but David was very complimentary of him after the fight. So, it’s kinda surprising when he starts saying, ‘I beat your other guy up.’ But I understand it. It’s all part of the game.”

Despite being understandably reticent to go into any technical details, Edwards acknowledged that he “learned a lot” about Benavidez that night.

“The number one thing I learned is that you got to be a man with David, because he will take your heart. He's a will-taker, a spirit-taker. You see those guys who get in the ring with him, he takes their spirit before he even throws a punch. Kyrone wasn’t scared of him; that’s why he was able to go seven rounds with no stamina, that’s why he was able to land his punches, because he wasn’t afraid. Look at David Lemieux: as soon as David hit him, he was falling all over the place, you know what I’m saying? Some guys, they’re scared of Benavidez. You’ve got to be a man. You’ve got to be willing to stand up to him and go through something to beat him. Because he’s going to put you through some stuff, but you’ve got to be willing to go through it. From an emotional standpoint, without having heart, you can’t beat him. You can’t. You’ve got to be a dog. But you’ve got to be a man with him. You can’t be intimidated.”