LAS VEGAS – Everything within Jermall Charlo’s control fell into place Saturday night in the ring, but in the hour after his scintillating return, everything fell apart.
“We’ve got to go back to the drawing board on this one. Caleb Plant dropped the ball,” Charlo said at Mandalay Bay after WBA interim super middleweight champion Plant was upset as a -1400 favorite by Mexico’s Armando Resendiz via split decision scores of 116-112, 113-115, 116-112.
Plant’s loss foils plans to pit Charlo versus Plant later this year in a high-profile bout intended to settle the feud that saw Plant slap the former two-division champion Charlo in the face during a July 2023 fight week in Las Vegas.
Charlo, 35, did his part in superb style, knocking down Thomas LaManna three times before a ringside physician inspected LaManna and ruled him unable to continue before the sixth round, making Charlo’s victory a technical-knockout triumph.
Crediting the effectiveness of his signature jab in setting up power punches that had Charlo, 34-0 (23 KOs), looking like the mid-to-late-2010s version of the former 154lbs and middleweight titleholder, the Houston product seemed fully back from the years-long malaise of underwhelming opposition, inactivity and mental-health struggles that included a driving-under-the-influence traffic accident last year, which clinched the stripping of his WBC middleweight belt.
“This camp was amazing. If people out there are going through something, the worst thing you can do is hold it in,” Charlo said. “My goal is to get more active. It’s a journey I’m still working on. I’m not perfect, but my record is.”
Plant, the former IBF super middleweight titlist, had lost only to undisputed 168lbs champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and unbeaten light heavyweight belt holder David Benavidez before Saturday night.
His boxing skill paced him through the early rounds, but pain in his right hand coincided with Resendiz starting to land effective power blows that both rocked Plant and appeared to zap his energy.
Judges Max DeLuca and Steve Weisfeld awarded Resendiz, 16-2 (11 KOs), scores of 116-112, and judge David Sutherland scored it 115-113 for Plant.
“When I heard split decision, I said, ‘Not again,’” said Resendiz trainer Manny Robles, whose fighters Serhii Bohachuk and Terrell Gausha have been burned by such scoring defeats within the past year.
Landing the defining heavy punches was the result of having “more than one strategy … it was not just Plan A,” Resendiz said. “We saw the fruits of my labor, and the way my corner and I interacted was the key to victory.”
Motivated by the impending birth of a child, Resendiz said that while Plant is “a great fighter, my confidence gave me the serenity to achieve what I accomplished tonight.”
Plant is empowered to invoke his rematch clause with Resendiz, or he could lean on his prominence in the sport and still seek the bout with Charlo. Both men fight under the Premier Boxing Champions banner.
“I’d go right to Charlo [or] we can run it right back,” Plant said.
Plant calls his lifestyle “the revenge tour,” in reflection of the adversity he conquered to become a titleholder, and he said after this setback, “If anyone’s the man for the job, it’s me.
“I’m not easily discouraged.”
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.