Caleb Plant will fight bottom-ranked WBA 168-lb contender Jose Armando Resendiz, while Jermall Charlo will emerge from another two-year layoff to face journeyman Thomas LaManna in the co-feature on a May 31st card in Las Vegas.
Mike Coppinger of The Ring, reports that the former IBF super middleweight champion ‘Sweethands’ Plant (23-2, 14 KOs) will fight #15 WBA contender Resendiz (15-2, 11 KOs) and Jermall Jermall (33-0, 22 KOs) takes on Lamanna (39-5-1, 18 KOs). The idea is for Plant, 32, and Charlo to win their fights and battle later this year.
May 31st Card
- Caleb Plant vs. Jose Armando Resendiz
- Jermall Charlo vs. Thomas LaManna
With all the bold talking that Caleb Plant has been doing on social media, why is he choosing a low-ranked fighter like Resendiz to face? Elijah Garcia knocked out Resendiz in the eighth round on September 30th, 2023. Since that loss, Resendiz has only fought once, beating Fernando Paliza (5-2) by a fifth-round knockout on February 21st. Fighting someone at this level to set up a fight against an inactive 35-year-old Jermall Charlo looks weak on Plant’s part.
LaManna is known for his first-round knockout loss to Erislandy Lara in 2021 and his decision defeat against Brian Mendoza in 2020. Those are the matches that LaManna is known for.
The “Tune-Ups”
The obvious question is, why do Plant and Jermall need tune-ups to prepare for their bad blood fight? These two mid-30-year-old fighters don’t need warm-up fights to prepare for a clash with no world titles at stake. Neither of these guys is going to win world titles at their age. Both had their time and now are resting on their fame as brief world titleholders many years ago.
There’s bad blood between Charlo and Plant from their incident on July 28, 2023, when ‘Sweethands’ slapped Jermall in the face at the Errol Spence vs. Terence Crawford weigh-in. Plant took off running to keep Jermall from retaliating. Interestingly, they never lined up a fight after that, which is odd because the logical thing for them to do would have been to set up a clash while the interest from this theatrical altercation was still in fans’ minds.
It says a lot for Plant and Jermall to be matched against this low level of opposition. Plant hasn’t fought a high-level opponent since losing to David Benavidez two years ago in 2023. In Caleb’s last fight, he beat an obscure fringe contender, Trevor McCumby, after being dropped by him early and staggered on another occasion on September 14th last year. Plant eventually knocked out McCumby in the ninth round, but it wasn’t impressive.
Plant should show some gumption and take on a talented 168-lb contender like Osleys Iglesias (13-0, 12 KOs) to set up a fight with the inactive former two-division world champion Jermall. Plant needs to not only talk the talk but also walk the walk. Calling out the hype job Edgar Berlanga, then fighting Resendez to get to a match against Jermall, shows that Plant is no different from the New Yorker, just focusing on money.
Last Updated on 04/01/2025
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