He probably doesn't want to go through the grind of a camp this soon a camp which would be more intense than this last one.
Pacquiao... he's the catchweight king. Demanded weight clauses with Morales, Mosely, Cotto, DLH, Margarito.
Team Clenelo have been accusing everyone of ducking their boy since he scurried back down to a graveyard division with his tail between his legs after sparking out the ''Best LHW in the world'' (his words not mine) aka Sergey Shotalev but there were two world champions up at LHW (King Artur and Prince Bivol) who were both ready, willing and very able who would've signed on that dotted line faster than he bolted back into the chicken coop when a prime GGG was on the prowl and I see no reason why he should be so deathly afraid of them when he'd already KO'd the ''best LHW in the world,'' which therefore obviously implies that he felt they were inferior to Shotalev. And what's more Bivol weighs about the same as him and he would be giving up less weight against Beterbiev than GGG was giving up against him. Clenelo is 180lbs minimum, Bivol about the same, and IIRC Artur is about 185 and has a 2.5 reach advantage over Clen. So a 5lb weight disadvantage and a 2.5''reach one is hardly some David vs Goliath scenario for a tank like Clenelo who has the safety net in place and huge advantage of knowing that he only has to make it to the final bell to get his hand raised. Hell, Loma at 135 is regularly giving up at least 7-10lbs and will likely be giving away 12-15lbs against his next opponent and he's been giving up 3.5-5.5'' in reach regularly at 135 too and obviously giving up 7-10lbs at 135 is more significant than 168 and 175 pounders doing so.
Unfortunately, beltholders fighting twice a year (even those in their prime) seems to have become the norm in recent years. On this basis, Plant is not out of line in his unwillingness to take the fight with a fairly tight turnaround, and his pattern recently has been 2 fights a year anyway. He might regret turning down the career high payday though if (or IMO when) he fights Benavidez next and loses.
Calculated risk from Plant, methinks. He's looking to make an in house unification fight with Benavidez. If he wins, he's got two beltsat 168 and his bargaining power for a Canelo fight grows exponentially.
I'm tired of calculated risks. Because of Calculated risks we got watered down version of Mayweather-Pac, didn't get Wilder-Joshua, didn't get Garcia-Lomachenko.
That's a hater perspective. If you take your hater goggles off, you'd be more concerned with Beterbiev and Bivol fighting.
Canelo is in another galaxy from Plant, that's like saying If Maidana held another belt (in addition to his WBA belt) his power would grow exponentially vs Floyd. It doesn't work like that. Canelo is such a cash cow in this sport that Plant would need to be undisputed at 168 to hold any bargaining power.
I was in another thread about 50's HW's and found out that most 50's HW had between 4 and 5 fights a year, every year. Some guys had up to 9 fights in a year. Man, you don't have to be Harry Greb but 3 months between fights mean 4 fights a year. I don't know the details of the deal Plant was offered.....dehydration, gloves, ref, fight location, $$$....but all things being equal, I'd advise Plant to take this fight. Would be the most might profile fight and probably the most money making fight of his career.
He has the same advisor that advised Quillin to drop his title and sit out for a year. The same advisor that told Wilder to not accept DAZNs 100 million dollar, three fight deal. The same advisor that advised Ruiz to drop his trainer for no logical reason.
Did the right not giving in to the money. Seek a unification unified fight against benavidez . seek legacy before money. I applaud him for sticking to his guns. Had he went on and fought Canelo i would not want to hear excuses of the short rest. He's a grown man he can make his own decisions
Want to talk about advantages huh? What about when Canelo had rigged scorecards against Trout, Lara, Mayweather and Golovkin? What about when Canelo used steroids in the lead up to fighting Golovkin? What about when Canelo had the weight clauses in place for old man Kovalev? What about when Canelo gave Kovalev a short camp? Calculated risks? You mean delaying the Golovkin rematch to quote 'we're going to wait until the time is right' In other words, let's wait until Golovkin has a couple more fights and has more miles on the clock. Then proceed to rip him off on the cards again. Hater perspective? Remember that time I called you out for making 42 Golovkin hate threads in 3 weeks? Go on, write a reply, log into your alt and immediate like your own comments again.
Putting aside how he'd walk into the fight physically, I think Plant figures this dude can't make 160, his team won't take the risk vs the top guys at 175, he's stuck at 168 and there's plenty of time to make the fight. Plant Benavidez is itself a huge fight and IMO the winner of that is the best in the division, regardless of how long the ring belt is held hostage in the UK by Hearn. There are just more good reasons there. They also have personal problems so it might just be that's the fight he wants period.
I actually think a more appropriate analogy would be to compare Plant with Canelo, who held two belts going into his fight with Mayweather and who had established himself at that point as the number two guy at 154lbs. The winner of a Sweet Hands-Bandera Roja clash will have established enough cachet that they could secure a much larger pay check...and a longer turnaround time for a potential fight.
