Fighting Words: Caleb Plant-Armando Resendiz is why they fight the fights

This was supposed to be a setup. Instead, it ended with an upset.

Don’t let anyone spin this otherwise. There was never supposed to be too much danger for either of the top names at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night. 

The matches weren’t supposed to be evenly matched. This night was supposed to be about Caleb Plant and Jermall Charlo, about them fighting separately before they faced each other.

Those were the designs. That’s what was on the blueprint. But when it came time to build toward the finished product, it turned out that there was a shakier foundation than expected.

Charlo did his part to start.

Charlo, who arrived at the arena with a record of 33-0 (22 KOs), was stepping back in the ring after 18 months away and strings of inactivity that stretched back even further, in large part due to public struggles with his mental health and legal trouble. 

The former junior middleweight and middleweight titleholder had fought just twice in the past four years. His last bout came against Jose Benavidez Jnr, someone who could never be considered anywhere near an upper-tier super middleweight. And neither could Charlo’s opponent in the co-feature on Saturday, Thomas “Cornflake” LaManna.

LaManna came in at 39-5-1 (18 KOs). While his defeats had only been against recognizable names, it’s not that those recognizable names were all top fighters, and it’s not that anything LaManna did against them then left the impression that he would do well with Charlo.

Two losses were to prospects Antoine Douglas (LaManna was stopped in the sixth round in 2015) and Dusty Harrison (LaManna lost a unanimous decision in 2016). 

Two were in 2020 to fringe contenders Jorge Cota (LaManna was taken out in five rounds) and Brian Mendoza (LaManna lost a unanimous decision).

And one was against middleweight titleholder Erislandy Lara in 2021. That was an 80-second obliteration.

In the four years since, LaManna has won nine fights while also working on occasion as a boxing promoter – both for shows featuring him as well as those spotlighting others. 

Charlo had been unranked by the WBA entering the fight. LaManna was rated 11th by the sanctioning body. Depending on your cynicism, LaManna’s insertion into the WBA rankings a couple months back was either on the strength of a March victory over an 11-6-1 opponent, or because he had signed to face Charlo, and a win for Charlo over a ranked contender would help set up a desired grudge match with Plant for Plant’s interim WBA belt.

On paper, an inactive Charlo at the age of 35 – toward the tail end of a boxer’s prime years, despite how much less punishment he’d taken given how rarely he’d fought – would be the one who seemed primed for an upset against the 33-year-old LaManna.

But even this rusty, aged Charlo had more than enough left in him to dispatch a fighter who couldn’t make it out of the first round against Lara. Charlo dropped LaManna in the third, fourth and fifth rounds. The fight was called off as the bell rang to start the sixth.

Now it was on to the main event. Now it was on Plant to complete the final step toward a match whose seeds had been, well, planted in July 2023. He and Charlo had an altercation during the fight weekend for Terence Crawford-Errol Spence in Las Vegas. That altercation’s conclusion was caught on camera, with Plant slapping Charlo and people subsequently wondering whether (and when) they’d lace up gloves to settle things.

On paper, Plant had to be the clear favorite against Resendiz.

Plant, who came in at 23-2 (14 KOs), had only lost to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and David Benavidez. Canelo is the best super middleweight of recent years. Benavidez is a former two-time titleholder at 168lbs (and currently a titleholder at 175lbs) who never lost his belts in the ring and was seen as the top super middleweight never to get the chance to face Canelo.

Plant was a world titleholder at the time he lost to Canelo. His reign began in early 2019, when he won the IBF belt from Jose Uzcategui, and lasted for three successful defenses. After getting stopped in the 11th round by Canelo in November 2021, Plant returned in October 2022 with a big ninth-round knockout of Anthony Dirrell. The decision loss to Benavidez came in March 2023, and Plant spent 18 months away before battling it out with Trevor McCumby last September en route to a ninth-round TKO win, capturing the WBA’s interim belt in the process. 

Resendiz, meanwhile, was 15-2 (11 KOs) and had neither succeeded at as high a level as Plant, nor had his failings come against as good opponents as Plant.

Resendiz’s first loss came in September 2021 via unanimous decision against the 14-4-2 Marcos Hernandez. He bounced back with two wins, including a big victory over faded former unified junior middleweight titleholder Jarrett Hurd in March 2023. Resendiz was well ahead on the scorecards going into the 10th and final round when the fight was called off due to Hurd having a badly cut lip.

That landed Resendiz another opportunity as the B-side to Elijah Garcia, who at the time in September 2023 was still an undefeated middleweight prospect. Garcia stopped Resendiz in the eighth round. After nearly 15 months away, Resendiz returned this February and put away a 5-2-1 opponent in five rounds. Resendiz was ranked 15th by the WBA, the lowest a fighter can be and still be allowed to compete for a world title.

But Resendiz was just 26 years old and still had time to show whether he’d reached his ceiling in those losses or had more room to grow beyond them. Plant was 32, usually still in a fighter’s prime years, but his style also meant that any decline in his foot speed or reflexes could leave him more vulnerable.

Plant indeed went through quite a battle with the hard-punching McCumby. For some, that fight may have been an elevation for McCumby, who had come in undefeated but was otherwise untested at that point. For others, the fact that Plant was getting caught by McCumby’s heavy blows was a warning sign, even though Plant weathered the storm and got the TKO win.

Plant said all the right things going into this fight, recognizing Resendiz as “a tough competitor” who would be “looking to seize his big moment.” But perhaps Plant still underestimated Resendiz, overestimated his own remaining abilities, and had at least part of his mind on the Charlo fight (and the impending birth of Plant’s son).

Whatever the underlying reasons might be for Plant’s performance, Resendiz deserves credit for it as well. Resendiz outworked and outlanded him, going 186 of 600, according to CompuBox, while Plant was 108 of 509. In terms of power punches, Resendiz was 109 of 294 while Plant was 70 of 193. Resendiz took advantage of opportunities to lead, opportunities to counter, and opportunities when Plant thought exchanges were over, when in reality Plant was open and still in-range. Resendiz won the split decision, two judges favoring him with 116-112 scores while the third judge had Plant ahead 115-113.

This is why they fight the fights. 

When the Plant-Resendiz/Charlo-LaManna card was announced, I thought of it as a dud of a doubleheader, a waste of a rare Premier Boxing Champions show being broadcast for free to Amazon’s Prime Video subscribers rather than another pay-per-view. There are many boxing fans who will watch to see their favorites win, no matter the opponent. But with PBC trying to rebuild after losing its longtime home on Showtime, it seemed a shame to put on what looked, on paper, to be two guaranteed victories.

Resendiz’s upset win doesn’t excuse the decision – it doesn’t elevate the decision after the fact. It’s doubtful that the matchmakers wanted Plant to be upset, never mind wanted Plant to have a tougher-than-expected victory that could also make the Charlo match less marketable.

There are a few routes that could be taken next.

Option 1: We could wind up with Charlo against Resendiz. After all, Resendiz now has the interim WBA belt, and a Charlo victory over Resendiz would either position him for a fight with Canelo or for becoming the primary titleholder if Canelo vacates or is stripped of the title.

Option 2: We could get a rematch between Plant and Resendiz, giving Plant a chance to prove whether he just had an off night and still has what it takes to defeat Resendiz. 

The day before Saturday’s doubleheader, once-beaten light heavyweight prospect Khalil Coe had a rematch with Manuel Gallegos, who’d dominated and stopped him last November. In their return bout, Coe finished Gallegos after five rounds. 

Making a rematch between Resendiz and Plant would also give Charlo the time to shake off more rust. A second Resendiz victory over Plant could send us back toward Option 1, while Plant gaining revenge would put the original plans back on track.

Option 3: We could get Plant-Charlo next no matter what. There’s still a rivalry between the two of them, a score that needs settling. And there are precedents where fighters suffered upset losses but still went directly into the next matches that had already been in the works. Among them: Erik Morales had his second fight with Manny Pacquiao despite being soundly out-boxed by Zahir Raheem, and Zab Judah still faced Floyd Mayweather Jnr three months after taking a shocking loss to Carlos Baldomir.

Raheem went on to lose to Acelino Freitas in a fight for a vacant lightweight title. That defeat, plus an at-times aesthetically displeasing style, plus a fourth-round knockout loss to Ali Funeka in a 2008 elimination bout, meant that Raheem never ascended any higher than he did with that win over Morales.

Baldomir defended the world title he took from Judah with a stoppage victory over Arturo Gatti and then picked up a significant payday while losing widely via decision to Mayweather. The most notable fights in the remainder of his career were both losses – to Vernon Forrest in 2007 and a young Canelo in 2010 – but they were bouts that would not have been possible had Baldomir not made his name on that one night. (Baldomir has since after being convicted of sexually abusing one of his children.)

Resendiz now has several doors open, and all of them had seemed unlikely entering this weekend. This is why they fight the fights. And this is also one of the reasons why we love the sport.

There were designs and a blueprint. And then Armando Resendiz came in and blew the house down.

This is a fairy tale turned reality. It is a story that took an unexpected turn – and there’s at least one more chapter still to come.

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter. David’s book, “,” is available on Amazon.