Plant is bang average as is most of the division, he's like Lucian Bute level and that might be flattering him, Froch would walk through him like he did Bute. Benavidez too, I don't get the hype, you couldn't do a super 6 tournament in this era because you couldn't find 6 fighters good enough. I mean they have Ryder in the top 5 on Boxrec and The Ring. Ryder is fun to watch and all but he's so limited he wouldn't be top 10 in the era of Froch, Ward, Kessler, Johnson, Bute, Abraham, Groves etc.
Froch would IRON HIM OUT by the 3rd round, Plant is decent but he's no match for 168 greatness like the cobra.
I agree. No way Ryder is top 5 level of the division were any good, and I really like him. I may rate Benavidez a little bit higher though, with his size he's IMHO pretty hard to beat and I think he'd be competitive with any of the names you mentioned above (competitive does not equal winning them all or anything, although I think he (Benavidez) would manage a few wins).
Benavidez is obviously better than plant based on their fight. But I find it hard to judge how good he is as there's really only one other quality fighter in the division right now that won't fight him. Yeah he's big, but so was Callum Smith and like Smith he's a tall fighter who fights like a smaller one and who doesn't know how to use his size and reach preferring to use that size to physically bully smaller opponents like Josh Taylor. In that regard he is better than Smith but he better have a damn good chin if he ever plans to move up and fight someone his own size and if he ever fights an elite out boxer he'll probably be exposed as one dimensional.
Froch destroys him along with everyone at 168. Benavidez would give him a good fight alongside Canelo (who would stand a solid shot of beating him). The rest, forget about it.
He does indeed fight like a smaller fighter. But although he does look a bit one dimensional to me too, sparring partners seem to rate him highly and Canelo's reluctance to fight him suggests to me that he may be better than I think.
He might very well be better than he looks. Froch himself was a fighter who was greater than he looked because he had that iron chin and that unshaking self belief. I hope he's as good as his fans think, he's got an entertaining style and it would be cool if he could really give Canelo a tough enough fight that it warrants more than one fight between them.
Is Caleb Plant registered to this forum? Not sure who else would've voted for him. Froch would've hurt him bad.