MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 🚨David Benavidez vs. Caleb Plant Instant Reaction | Morning Kombat Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: March 26, 2023

Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell have you covered with an instant reaction to David Benavidez vs. Caleb Plant. The guys break down everything about the fight and much more. Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Reveley, reveley, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip this is our life this is our passion that's the spirit we bring to this show i'm luke thomas i'm brian campbell this is morning combat luke thomas this is going to be the David Benavidez versus Caleb Plant instant reaction post-fight show. Thank you for joining me. The main event has ended. I don't have my thing buttoned anymore, but I am ready to get this going. Now, Brian Campbell, who is my partner in crime for Morning Combat, is actually right over there doing a CBS Sports HQ hit. When that is done, he will return to the stage here and we'll, of course, take you through everything. I'm going to get you started.

So if you're watching now, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Thumbs up on the video. Hit subscribe if you're new. We'd really appreciate that. We do these post-fight shows late into the night, but we also do the regular morning combat Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

And I know some of the MMA fans are going to be wondering, what about the UFC stuff? We've got plenty of coverage coming for that on Monday. We're going to get to Corey Sanhagen's win and everything else. But right now, we're talking about what just ended behind me. You can't quite see it because it's over my shoulder, but the middle cam will show you here in just a second. We are here in the MGM Grand Garden Arena, actually in this thing. There's still some people here because they're doing some post limbs.

But we want to talk about the main event that just concluded. So if you have been living under a rock and you don't want spoilers, now's your time to go. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. You can hear the commentator there. Excuse me. Miguel Flores, I believe. A ring announcer bringing some other folks to the ring. But here is how the main event went for David Benavidez and Caleb Plant.

David Benavidez wins via unanimous decision with scores as follows. 115-113, 116-112, and then 117-111. I think the last two, to me, are a little bit more defensible. Obviously, it's just one fight. Sorry, couldn't tell who was coming there. Obviously, it's just one fight, and it's actually the way you want to think about this main event to me was that everything kind of slowly turned into what it ultimately became. But if you look at the scoring, it almost feels like a tale of two fights.

Namely, everything that happened up until the sixth round and then everything that happened from the sixth round on. What do I mean by that? From the sixth round on, I believe the unofficial scorer for Showtime, Steve Farhood, never gave a single round from 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,

11, and 12. Didn't give a single round to Caleb Plant, and neither did I. In the first five, it becomes a little dicier. There are possibilities to have 4-1 Caleb Plant inside the first five. I had 3-2 Caleb Plant inside the first round. But once David Benavidez started going downhill, it just stayed that way.

Truly, let's just back up a step here. Cards on the table. Thought Caleb Plant was going to win. Totally wrong. Although there are some, I think, redeeming elements to his performance. But still, this was the David Benavidez show. And he won and deserved to win. And from the sixth round on was, frankly, unstoppable.

So here's how the fight went from what I can tell. And again, we're talking about through the first five. Competitive in spots. The first round was kind of hard to judge. I thought Caleb had a better second and third. Maybe Benavidez had one in the fourth, and then Caleb maybe rebounded a little bit in the fifth. That was it. But what was Caleb doing early? Early, you saw him using this sort of lead hand as a way to kind of judge distance, be an element to distract, right? He

could go high, then he would jab to the body, would set up a lot of different things he would want to do. At times, you could see David Benavidez kind of slapping it out of the way to get frustrated. But Caleb Plant initially was working behind the body jab, laterally. He was getting Benavidez to cover up and then throwing quick flurries, body and head. You saw some of the same things, and he didn't just do them in the Durrell fight, but from the Durrell fight, where he was doubling up on the same side or doubling up on the other side, right, where he'd go left hook to the body, left hook to the head.

So early on, it looked like Caleb Plant had the right idea, and early on, he was landing more, ultimately, than David Benavidez. The movement was there. The movement was there. The anticipation was there. David Benavidez was trying to jab his way in. It was working sometimes. It wasn't that effective. He was counter-striking a lot, counter-punching, kind of just waiting around.

And we always know that David Benavidez doesn't necessarily start strong. And so you thought, okay, Caleb's doing well. This is going roughly according to plan, of course, as we indicated having Stephen Breadman Edwards in his corner this time. Breadman Edwards, of course, was the game plan mastermind behind J-Rock's win over Jared Swift Hurd. So you knew he had some kind of idea about what to do in those spots. Another thing that you saw Caleb do was he was on his horse. He was working to the body.

He was working in combination. And then when Benavidez got too close to him, he would clinch up. You saw that all the time. And for the first five rounds, however many you want to give to Caleb, I thought he won the majority of them, either 4-1 or 3-2. This was going fairly well-ish for him. This was going pretty well. Again, he was winning the fight up to that point.

But here's the problem, and this is where it all kind of came apart for him in the end. Number one, I think this was the biggest factor. We're going to get BC's opinion here in just a few moments. But to me, he just couldn't hurt David Benavidez. If you look at their faces afterwards, and of course that's a very rough measurement of things, but Caleb Plant did have a cut from an inadvertent headbutt, but also his ear looked really swollen and red,

not kind of cauliflower swollen, but bad. His face was a mess. He really was wearing the damage in a way that Benavidez simply wasn't. He wasn't getting hit enough for that to happen. Caleb Plant was able to score early, but he was never able to discipline David Benavidez. He was never able to get David Benavidez off of him. He was never able to get David Benavidez confused or really thinking, at least not for long stretches of that

bout. So in the first five rounds, I thought Caleb was doing pretty well. I thought the clinching was pretty great. But as we mentioned, it just kind of fell apart for him after the six. I want to get to some of the striking totals that we have numerically here in just a minute. We'll do that for too long here. But what I thought David Benavidez did a really good job of was when he realized that Plant couldn't get him off, couldn't back him up, couldn't get him off of him, couldn't make him respect the space, couldn't really confuse him.

And now he was walking into him with much more, I won't say but much more purpose frankly pace a little bit as well and from there that's when the fight really got away from caleb plan he was still trying to use lateral movement staying off the ropes getting back to center was able to do some of that okay but you really saw from round six on especially in rounds eight and nine i thought thought that's where it got ratcheted up big time. David Benavidez able to land. I thought one of David Benavidez's best punch, how about that left hook? And he was catching it between punches with Caleb Plant. He was catching it off the jab.

He was catching it off movement. He was catching it from different angles. And then the other key portion of this, even though you heard, I think, some commentary around how much David Benavidez was headhunting, the other component was the rest space that Caleb Plant was trying to occupy by the hugging, by the clinching.

What you eventually notice is that Kenny Bayless is quick, the referee, to separate them, and I did think that worked to Caleb Plant's benefit early. But over time, what you saw was that David Benavidez, better about using frames, better about giving himself just enough room where he could strike his way in the middle of it, strike his way to keep the clinch going, to keep referee Kenny Bayless off of him, and land seriously damaging shots,

hooks over and over again. Again, go look at Caleb Plant's ears. A disaster. A total disaster. He was able to rock him, forcing more clenching, where he would either get separated again and then begin to back up, or even more punishment was really meted out. Why do I bring all this up?

Because if you can walk Caleb Plant down, if he can't discipline you with the jab, if he's not really slowing you down to the body, and of course now you're able to land some of your left hooks in between what he's doing on the exits, and he can no longer clinch with you, not effectively, and that's now going to be a place where you can just do inside fighting, well, that's the fight turning. He added some more punches, David Benavidez. I thought from that eighth, ninth, and especially the last three, the tenth, the eleventh, and the twelfth, uppercuts. The uppercuts he was able to land on Caleb Plant as he was kind of bent over and forced

over were dramatic. They had a huge, huge impact. I think BC is done. We're going to get him here in just a second. He's taking pictures. Here he comes running. I'm going to make fun of him for taking pictures with donks. He actually denied an MK donk earlier who wanted a picture.

That's a fact. All right, let's bring him in. He's my friend and yours. He's got a pocket square on that he's very happy about. We're going to get his scores and everything else. Boy, I look like shit with this untied tie. Good Lord. It's Brian Campbell.

I mean, when are you back on shift as the chauffeur, Luke? I mean, what are we doing here? I really just look like I'm going to get your car. I mean, I'm wearing every shade of blue they've ever made, but let's talk about the fight. Well, it's picked up where you left off. Where are we in this? I was just about to give Caleb Plant some compliments for his toughness.

Let's give him a lot of compliments. This is David Benavidez's night. It's his night. But the relentlessness, the toughness. His stock did not go down today. No. Well, it did a little bit. A little bit.

Yeah, it did. Look, here's the idea ultimately. Caleb Plant had to keep this fight on the inside to be able to lock up Benavidez when things got tight. The problem is he was really never able to consistently get off offense on the inside. And Benavidez was. Exactly. So certainly from a toughness factor, from a willingness to face the best, you have to love what Caleb Plant showed.

The buildup to this fight on fight night and the respect afterwards. But how about this fight that's built on trash talk and the real hate? And Benavidez telling me on stage, fuck no, after Friday's weigh-in, would the hatchet ever be buried here? Plant loses the fight, certainly gains a lot more respect of anybody who had doubts about him, but then the two of them go from enemies to friends

just like that. Caleb Plant did earn that in defeat, obviously, though, across the board. Everything we said about David Benavidez in terms of his upper bound limits, his potential as the Mexican monster, as Mike Tyson named him. Oh boy, that boogeyman at 168 is for real. He's coming. The pressure is relentless. It's pressure on top of pressure. And if you can't hurt him

and if you can't escape him, what can you do? That's what's going to happen. I mean, you know, there was a way this could be a lot like the Canelo fight. There'd be different opponents for Caleb Plant, but the idea of he might win a certain amount of rounds in the first half, but then it's that pressure walking him down. Can he withstand it? I do wonder in this fight, if it was a different referee, if it was a smaller ring, maybe Caleb Plant would.

He looked close to going out a couple of the rounds. In the end, it doesn't matter so much. It's still just as impressive a victory for Benavidez. But how much do you think the Kenny Bayless factor played into anything? In the end, it doesn't matter so much. It's still just as impressive a victory for Benavidez. But how much do you think the Kenny Bayless factor played into anything? People were very upset. Honestly, here's what I said. I looked at Steve Farhood's scoring, and I think yours and mine matched it.

I said, you know, it's not a tale of two different fights, but the scoring kind of looks that way. Here's what I mean. Rounds one through five, you could find three, sometimes four rounds for Caleb Plant in that first five. So it was either three, two, or four, one. Yeah, I scored it. The fight nine to three, I gave Caleb Plant, though, three rounds, one, two, and four. Four.

Right. So this is my point. He had the first three with inside the first five. But the sixth round on, Benavidez never looked back. And I like the way that you put it. I was saying the exact same thing. Listen, if you're Caleb Plant, he was able to land on Benavidez early. He was able to score early, and that mattered,

especially given some of the early hesitancy from David Benavidez, which we know he does. But he couldn't hurt him, and he couldn't confuse him. Yes, some of the movement was good, and he was able to be slippery early, but not enough to avoid the damage. And I like what you brought up. You're asking about the Kenny Bayless factor. Early on, I thought it was significant.

As time wore on, I did not think that as much because Benavidez was able to frame and score upper cuts and hooks in these tiny, tight little windows that was ringing Caleb Plant's bell over and over and over again. And at times, you'd actually see Kenny Bayless reach in to break them up, and you'd see Benavidez still throwing through all of that, scoring

Caleb Plant at times, true or false, especially later, hanging on for dear life in this contest. And again, under different circumstances, a smaller ring, maybe a different referee would have handled differently. The reason why I'm not as up in arms, did Kenny Bayless go too far and have too much in hand? Yes, he did. The thing that I'm ultimately saying is, that's what you get. I mean, he's a Hall of Fame referee. He has the great reputation. But referees have strike zones just like

umpires in baseball. Look no further than the two-fight series, which was Floyd Mayweather and Marcos Maidana from 2014. The first fight, a majority decision, wild, incredible fun. Tony Weeks was your referee. Yeah, Tony Weeks from Castillo Corrales won, right? Kenny Bayless, number two, in the rematch, you saw a much different fight. You also saw Floyd use a much different strategy, relying on his legs and his quickness and his boxing but you have to know what you're getting into with this type of referee but I'm basically saying for all the hullabaloo the right guy won the right guy still figured it out look we ended up you and I in a very close fight on paper odds wise picking plant believing in those skills believing that he could endure and boy did he endure let's give him that credit but we were ultimately predicting david

benavidez's demise based on the idea that he looks so perfect to get a certain level against a certain level of competition but what is going to be the hole that jumps out on the highest level when tested against a guy who's quicker more adaptable to the pure science of it none of those questions emerged i mean because he had the answer every single time he didn't guess out even though he certainly used the bad blood between them to fuel himself never too far to a negative point maybe in rounds one or two were the only times i'm thinking benavidez chasing a little bit too much trying to do mano a mano ultimately benavidez held firm so when you removed all of those potential intangibles, and even though I predicted that from a toughness factor,

Plant had the potential there to go the distance and maybe even have a chance on the scorecards, the punches from Benavidez really took the starch out of Plant. Really, where it became survival mode around in that round six to seven area was the first time you're seeing Plant get rocked by punches and you're starting to ask yourself, is he one punch away from a knockdown? Is he one more big punch away from this fight being over? I give Plant obviously a ton of credit for being such a dog in the 12th round for still coming back at him.

But round six through 12 went Benavidez's way in a lot of ways because those punches, although not knocking down or finishing Plant, they had a lot of effect on his stamina. They wore him down. Dude, Blanavides is that guy. It didn't matter did he overtrain. It didn't matter any of that. This is why you make the fights between the elites to find out. Boy, we found out.

It's one of those times where you're happy. We got to give predictions because that's what we do on our shows. But you're happy you got it wrong because you want to see that guy potentially knocking on the door of Canelo Alvarez. That's something we've been talking about for, I don't know, three, four, five years in terms of what type of opponent could ultimately be that perfect kryptonite for how great that undisputed champion is in this division. Let me say something about the pick, the Benavidez and the plant pick. I mean, obviously we're totally wrong, and Raul Marquez blowing us up on Twitter.

I see you, Raul. I see you. But he told us, though, to our face. He was right. No, no, to our face. He was right. And listen, listen. No, no, no. Let's call him out. This is his moment. But he said, I'm not going to be there after the fight when you guys are crying because

Caleb Plank got stopped. Yeah, no. I mean, Demonte, can you pull, you know, can we step on the brakes a little bit here? Here was my hesitancy ahead of time. And if you talk to all the other boxing experts, most of them, not that we are, but if you talk to actual ones, they mostly thought that Benavidez would do ultimately what he did. He was the favorite to win this one. So there you go, El DiMonte.

Good job picking the favorite. God, you look like Vince Vaughn in swing. I know. After a long night. I just look the worst. Anyone know where the high school girls hang out? This is great here. I look terrible.

But here is the thing, BC, and you might agree with me on this. Benavidez has always looked really good on tape, right? I mean, he's got certain things he does that aren't conventional boxing, but in terms of the punishment he delivers and the way in which he does it, he's always been really, really highly touted and very interesting. But I'm sorry, Caleb Plant was the toughest opponent he had ever faced by far, certainly the most unique one in terms of the movement. For me, BC, I tell you what, I wasn't sure what kind of crowd I was ready to expect tonight.

They were a sellout, massively pro-Benevides. There was a bunch of Mexican boxers on the crowd. They were pro-Mexican in general, but huge Benevides crowd. And BC, I thought that Benevides delivered. I thought at 26 years old, he's never looked better. Remember, he came in at 166 and change on the scales. Boy, if there was any doubters out there, and we were a couple of them about Benavidez, it's time to put a lot of that away.

He really, really, really not only fought the toughest guy, but he looked the best I'd ever seen him. Yes, he's got other knockouts and amazing highlight reels, but again, against who? Not against guys of this caliber. And for him to put on the performance he did, especially when he was going downhill for the sixth round on, wow, super, super impressive. David Benavidez is a star in boxing.

A star, yes. Always was one, always on the move. Tonight was the night where he became a legitimate star in the world of boxing. A validating moment without question. And I like to plan game plan, movement, a lot of that stuff early. But what Benavidez is showing us is can you do that for 12 rounds? Can you keep cooking in the kitchen when there's flames everywhere? No, it's really, really hard.

I'm not getting out. Are you validating my parking? What's going on right now? And, you know, there's flames everywhere. I want to talk about. No, it's really, really hard. I'm not getting out. Are you validating my parking? What's going on right now? Dude, I actually wasn't even thinking when I was looking at the suit. And then I put it on before I came downstairs. And I swear to God, this is the first thing I thought. I go, dude, fucking BC is going to roast me.

All night long. Yeah, but I'm wearing these pants. It's not as easy to take to just sit here. I mean, come on. But, okay, I want to. I'm not going to. It's not as easy to take to just sit here. I mean, come on. But, okay, I'm not going to get on Twitter. I want to look at the stats. Well, you are defensive about it. Well, you know, Friday wasn't my best show. But here we are.

Let's look at the stats on this one, BC, because they were dramatic. So, jabs, 23% of Benavidez's shots were jabs. Yeah. Just 9%. Just 9%. Excuse me, what am I saying? Go to the total punches. I? Yeah. Just 9%. Just 9%. Excuse me, what I'm saying. Go to the total punches. I was going to say 9%.

Excuse me, I'm reading it wrong. 9% scored for Plant. 23% scored for Benavidez. He landed 30 of them. How about this? Power shots. Just 18% scored for Caleb Plant. 68.

180 for David Benavidez. And this was the big one, obviously. Total, 38% of the strikes, or punches, excuse me, landed for David Benavidez. 210 scored, just 91 for Caleb Plant. Caleb Plant got outlanded more than 2-1. Yeah, more than 2. You can't beat David Benavidez that way. I thought the scores were a little bit too close.

1-17, 1-11 was a little high. No, that was my scorecard, 9 rounds to 3. Oh, sorry, sorry. 1-15, 1-13. Because I didn't seecard, nine rounds to three. 115, 113. Because I didn't see Plant really do much. Great survival skills, for sure. Great at least trying to find moments and rounds that he was getting beat up in the second half, but the

second half was all Benavidez. So unless maybe you overloaded the front half. Either way, the right guy won. That's not what it is. But I don't want to go further, Luke, without hitting back on that end of that fight sequence. The post fight. I don't know if this matters to you, without hitting back on that end of that fight sequence, the post-fight. I don't know if this matters to you guys, but this is a brutal, violent sport, and all the fights don't always get made, and, you know, there can be bad headlines.

There was something really pure, a transaction that took place in there. Caleb Plant earning the respect of his, you know, most hated rival, his Hatfield and his McCoy. That felt, like, awesome. It felt great. Afterwards. It felt great. It felt great. To see Benavidez Sr. come over and apologize and to see Benavidez on mic just go, look, I can't talk bad about this guy. Jim Gray was bringing up the past.

I don't want to talk bad about this guy. I love this guy now. I love that. You don't get those happy good feels. This is like the end of a sitcom like Full House. They play the nice music and DJ's got to come to terms in this one-parent household. There's a bunch of uncles around. I'll tell you what.

I think it was pretty clear to Caleb Plant from rounds 10 and 11 that he was not going to win this. He was going to try. He didn't lay down, but I think it appeared clear to him he wasn't going to be able to win. He stopped moving nearly as much. By the 11th round, that game plan for the first two rounds was gone, but here's what he refused to relinquish, and this is what I think David Benavidez picked up on. He just refused

to surrender emotionally. He refused to surrender competitively, even if he knew he was going to lose, even if he knew he was going to beat. I think, excuse me, I think that David Benavidez picked up on that and realized that's who he had.

They were slinging the dogs in the last 30 seconds. It was crazy. That's what Caleb Plant earned in terms of respect tonight from David Benavidez. Fueled Benavidez being so jovial afterwards. You want to find your equal. Not that they weren't equals on this night. You want to find somebody who can drive you past the level that you may get to on your own. That forces you to be great.

Caleb Plant forced David Benavidez to be great today because if he wasn't, there was going to potentially be openings. But let's talk about the bread man effect. I mean, you know, you saw Caleb Plant trying to land some form of that double hook combination that ended Andre Durrell in his last fight, the knockout of the year. Came close early, looked at one point when they traded punches, I think it was the fourth or fifth round,

it looked like Plant finally landed it, but this monster just aided and kept coming forward. And the flurries from Caleb Plant, they didn't amount to much. They didn't. And so, you know, I give Plant a lot of credit. His confidence was through the roof. But we were asking too much of him and a new trainer if Benavidez was able to leave no questions lingering,

and that's exactly what he did. So the crowd was electing tonight. Great crowd. You know, it's no secret that I'm a sucker for this, right? Big-time Vegas Championship fight feel. You know, we always say the last 10 minutes before, you know, they touch gloves to start a pay-per-view main event is the most exciting 10 minutes in sports.

And you certainly had that tonight. I'm not comparing this pop or this feel to when I was in the same building for Mayweather Canelo in 2013 or Mayweather Pacquiao or over at T-Mobile for even Mayweather McGregor. But there was like an extra special feel in the year, not just in the buildup to them walking to the ring, to the fans being all pro-Benevides, but there was just an extra level of energy.

The fans really appreciated the fight that they got. It wasn't a barn burner. It wasn't, you know, but it was dramatic. It was intense the whole time. And watching Benevides. What a night. What a close-up for the sport. What a night.

Watching Benavidez connect with his own audience. You know, I guess he's done it before. He's big in Arizona. Obviously, we're not far from there. You saw a lot of Arizona flags in attendance here tonight. But I really, really believe this was the night that he met the demands of the Mexican fight fans. He met them. He, I think in many ways, exceeded them.

And it brings us, BC, to this conversation that we have to have. You heard David Benavidez say it afterwards, although it's no secret. In this weight class, at 168 pounds, there is one man who has all the titles, and his name is Canelo Alvarez. Now, Canelo Alvarez has a mandatory fight he's taking for Cinco de Mayo against a guy by the name of John Ryder. Correct me if I'm wrong, BC. Canelo Alvarez typically fights around two times a year, taking for Cinco de Mayo against a guy by the name of John Ryder. Correct me if I'm wrong, BC. Canelo Alvarez typically fights around two times a year, once

on Cinco de Mayo, and then once in September for Mexican Independence Day, right? So we don't know what he's going to do. He has this fight with Ryder coming up. He has told most media outlets he wants another crack at Bivol. I don't know what's going to happen. I don't like that fight for Canelo, obviously based on what happened, but we'll see. BC,

what are the impediments to making a fight between David Benavidez and Canelo Alvarez? Lay that one out for us. How does that one get made or not? In theory, it comes down to Canelo. Now, reputation for Canelo in terms of always looking to make the biggest fights, check. We got that. But membership has its privileges. When you're the biggest star in the sport, Canelo is.

When you're among the pound-for-pound best, and look, he just had his run where he was the pound-for-pound best without question. He's also a competitor. He also realized that even though we watched B-Volt kind of largely, you know, one-sidedly beat him. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings.

Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit Superstore.ca to get started. It was 7-5, 7-5, 7-5 on all three scorecards. So one thing is, look, at large, Ken Alvarez is the rare promotional and network-free agent. He tends to take most of his business to Eddie Hearn and ultimately on DAZN, although he obviously came to Showtime pay-per-view for the Caleb Plant. It's going to be up to him.

As long as he didn't sign something with Eddie Hearn that keeps him there, an extra fight or any kind of option, when Canelo gets through with John Ryder, he's going to have a decision potentially. It's going to depend on B-Vol's schedule. And we all, of course, want B-Vol to go in the direction of Artur Beterbeev and have their own undisputed fight at 175 for all four belts. But Canelo's got to make the decision of giving the fans exactly what they want of this type of fight between Mexican superstar, Mexican-American rising stud

who has captured that fan base and come back to the division where he's best in show. No one's going to hold it against him if you dare to be great, but Benavidez is finally back. He did the work he had to do. This fight already would have happened if Benavidez hadn't been stripped of the title for missing weight, his fault, or maybe even years earlier, you know, with the earlier stripping of of the title benavidez at 26 put it all back together on this night he did his part he's got the interim wbc title for whatever that's worth and he's got the fans saying okay this calendar year i hope we get spence crawford i don't know if we're getting fury usic i don't know about these other ones i know we're getting tank davis ryan garcia aprilnd. And they could make this fight here

in Canelo Alves versus David Benavidez that is arguably as big or bigger than all of those. Based on your expectations for entertainment, one of the best divisions in the sport, 168, all four titles on the line. I mean, this man is the boogeyman of this division for a reason, Benavidez. It still holds true.

Even with a guy like David Morel, a young fighter who looks really good, has a title. Even with all these other names, Jamal Charlo possibly moving up, Andrade, all that. The one guy who you're like, oh, okay, that might be the kryptonite for Superman. It's Benavidez. He made me, again, I wasn't

excited. Yeah, I guess he did make me a believer. I guess he did. He made me a believer in what he could do in this weight class. Who would you favor in a fight between Canelo and Benavidez? Here's what's interesting about that. Canelo did not have the best 2022. He dared to be great, but lost against B-Vol in his trilogy fight

at 168 against middleweight champion and aging Gennady Golovkin was not this showcase of history or back and forth. Canelo kind of limped to the finish line and got a decision. Deservedly, not a great fight. Canelo's got a lot to answer right forth. Canelo kind of, you know, kind of limped to the finish line and got a decision. Deservedly, not a great fight. Canelo's got a lot to answer right now.

You know, can he get back to that position atop the pound-for-pound list? The competitor in him is going to want to prove that. So I think there's a very good chance we see this this year. The other factor is you just have to wonder how much the boxing industry inside Mexico, heavily powered by fans, but the other power players there too, what kind of pressure they're going to put on Canelo to take this fight. Did you ask me who would be favored?

Is that what you asked me? How would you see it? It's funny, right? I'd see it in the front row. Yeah, right. But Canelo is not the kind of fighter Benavidez is, but a similar game plan from both broke Caleb Plant. Sure. Obviously, Canelo was able to do it in the front row. Yeah, right. But Canelo is not the kind of fighter Benavidez is, but a similar game plan from both broke Caleb Plant. Sure.

Obviously, Canelo was able to do it in the 11th. He did a ton of body work, which, by the way, Benavidez didn't do a whole lot of. No, he didn't. A lot more head-wrenching. But I think especially early on when Caleb Plant was still so spry and prime before the punches started to wear him down, it wasn't easy to slow down the moving target.

Also, you know, something we thought when we saw them at the weigh-in, it's like, oh, Benavidez is not that much bigger, but in the ring, he looked so tall, you know, he just looked like a much bigger guy. So, I don't know, man. Canelo's hard to pick against, but at 26? 26? David Benavidez is 26?

Well, I guess what I was saying is this is the best time to make this fight and try to see how close the odds actually can get. Because there's some questions about has Canelo aged a bit? Is he still that dude? Because he turned pro at 15. Let's not forget, okay? He had just as many fights as Floyd when they met in 2013.

It's incredible how long he's actually been around. But David Benavidez's stock could not be any higher. And let's put the final bit of respect on what Benavidez showed. And he shouted himself out afterwards. He did show responsible defense. He wasn't squaring up in there to be hit. I thought his slow pace in the beginning was necessary. He needed to let Caleb Plank get

all that movement out of the way. Once those short chopping punches and the work on the inside started to happen, man. Denying the clinch too. And if there's any way that fight couldn't get made, you just as much want to see him against Charlo, Andrade, or Morel.

You're damn right. Right, okay, so those are great. We have to talk about it here. Caleb Plant, again, first, two-fifths of the fight did pretty well. After that, it kind of got away from him. Where does he go from here? Because, again, stock rose in terms of the dog factor, but your stock rose in terms of the dog factor.

Yep. But your stock gets hurt because now you face a guy who's a top contender in the weight class, and you lost, and you lost thoroughly, so that puts you down a little bit further. It has some work to do. Would an Andre fight make sense? Who would make sense for Caleb Plant at this stage?

It sounds, you know, lame to say it, but any of those super elite names, you know what I mean? I mean, would you love to see a debuting Jermall Charlo at Super Middleweight again? The thing is, I don't think Caleb Plant's going to necessarily want to go back to the drawing board and step down his level of competition. He's trying to be as great as he possibly

can be. I mean, it meant a lot to him whether it was safe or sound or not to finish this fight. That meant a lot to him. Huge, yes. And to still be pushing the pace. Yes. To have his chance to win over the respect. Look, fight. That meant a lot to him. Huge, yes. And to still be pushing the pace. Yes. To have his chance to win over the respect. Look, Caleb Plank got criticized a lot when that soundbite came out of the fight against Canelo. Do you know the soundbite? I'm talking about

that conversation they had when he looked at Canelo and was like, what do you think about my boxing ability? Like, not bad, right? And people were like, you're really trying to get validation from your opponent there? It's really not about an insecurity as much as Caleb Plank is out to get his respect. And, you know, you can validate that all you want, what that means, whether he should be.

I think he got it against Canelo, and he certainly got it tonight against Benavidez. Those two just happen to be the two best in this division. I like his chances against any of the other great fighters. And I think you have to, right? Styles are always going to make fights. The Morel fight's tough. The Morel fight is tough. For anybody. But Morel's 24 tough. The Morel fight is tough. For anybody.

But Morel's 24 years old, or just turned 25. He doesn't have that same level of seasoning. But Caleb is sitting at 30, smack in the middle of his prime, getting not too far necessarily from the end of it. Maybe a year or two, or potentially even more. If Benavidez goes

the Canelo route, then I like Charlo versus Plant a lot. Charlo 168, yeah. I like that. I like that a lot. Jamal Charlo told us himself that, look, he's trying to come back this summer, and that may be to defend the middleweight title for the final time. He has the WBC strap. But I think, like, when the moment is ready for the big one, he's going to jump in.

I mean, he said it, Luke. He said it, right? What do you think about Jamal saying that if I get a chance to fight Benavidez, you want to see bad blood, you ain't seen nothing yet? What does that do for you? That gets me out of bed in the morning. Yeah, it does. The Charlo's seem to hate everyone, though, so that's a little bit weird.

So does Kayla Plant, it seems. Right? Kayla Plant also seems to hate everyone. I mean, not hate, but just so aggressively wants you to respect him, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was the most I'll ever touch you, Luke, okay? Why don't you tell the folks what you did today like a fucking weirdo? Why don't you tell them?

I don't think this is weird, Luke, okay? So you know what it's like on the road. It can exhaust you. Yesterday we were in front of a camera for like six hours in the end. I've got to protect my mental health, so today I had to go for a walk. And I walked 6.4 miles, but I saw you in the distance. You were across the street, across those busy Las Vegas streets. I think we were near the area where Tupac got killed.

Yes, that's right. Not to bring the food down. Yeah, actually, we were, yeah. We were. I saw you from the distance, but you had a coffee in your hand. There ain't no way in hell you're walking 3.2 miles to the record store with me. Not even happening. I walked two and a half to the mall.

You hate records, all right? I walked two and a half to the mall. Chucky needs new shoes. I got some, actually. So, I took a picture of Luke from distance, you know, texted at him like, ha ha, and then just kept going. Okay. I mean, what do you want? We've been hanging out all week.

What do you want? The picture was from like ten feet away. No, I zoomed in. I have a creep. Could you imagine if I lived in his neighborhood and I was a woman? I wouldn't feel safe anymore. Let's see the picture. I mean, is this really? Show them.

Show them. Look at that. This douchebag got me just walking down the street with a Starbucks in my hand. So the thing was, you give me back a diatribe over text. It's like, well, I just want you to know I'm not mad. That wasn't a part of my factor. That wasn't a part of my equation. That wasn't a part of my equation. That wasn't part of my, you know. No, no.

What I meant was, what I said to you was that I thought it was, because you had walked all that way. 6.4 miles. To go to the record store. I actually thought that was really cool. And then when I realized you were like five feet away from me taking pictures like a creep, I said it was really unnerving. Those are three and four lane roads with crazy people. I mean, you know, what am I going to run across to say hi to you? I saw you all morning.

Yeah, I see you taking pictures of the local milfs. I was going to work for three hours with you. I mean, I can only take so much LT, all right? I know what you want from me, all right? All right, fair enough, Dad. I will say this. I mean, are you going to check on the rental property right now? Look at me.

I got to go Uber after this. I did think that the scoring in the main event was basically fine. And what I mean by that is the scoring on some of the other cards tonight, like the Valenzuela-Chris Colbert fight, was a disaster. No, a disaster. You're like, it was close. Not like that. I do want to say that neither you or I were scoring it round by round. So we cannot until we go back and do that.

95-94. Okay, look, it was a close fight. That score to me is not necessarily a robbery. I reserve the right to go back and check it. I think the problem was that all three judges, two of those BMI Connecticut guys that have very good reputations in this game, Glenn Feldman and Dontrella, all three had the same score. So it looks like this organized, we got got it wrong it's a ridiculous robbery but even

though Colbert succumbed to some big punches including getting floored in round one he was coming back in a lot of these rounds and rallying yeah but there was a lot of rounds he was laying against the ropes getting teed off on look all I'm arguing all I'm trying defending here is you know we're got people tweeting out like this is you know this is why boxing is dead and it's like it was a close fight it It just, you know, maybe all three judges got it wrong. Let me review it and watch it, but it was a really fun fight. I mean, the first two fights were fantastic. I can see why Valenzuela,

after dropping Colbert and then having strong moments throughout the course of that fight, would feel cheap. I mean, Jim Gray didn't like the scorecard. He certainly didn't. He certainly didn't. He let everyone know about that. BC, anything else? You know, I can't wait for Monday's morning Combat Show where we look back at, you know. We have to talk about UFC stuff.

San Antonio, we spin this fight card forward. Speaking of crazy-ass scoring, I saw some of the results from that one. You could have scored that fight 5-0 Corey Sanhagen, and they gave, one judge gave him Chito three rounds. And that judge had two fights on his resume coming in. Let's put him in the main event of UFC San Antonio. Texas. And by the way, the referee from the horrible Fury FC fight on Friday was a judge tonight at the UFC event. So that was awesome.

Yeah, that's great. We're going to get to that on Monday. We appreciate you guys. Hey, listen. Let's thank the fans. We've been here since Wednesday night. About time you put the fans first. Although I did blow off that fan. You tried to get to that on Monday. We appreciate you guys. Hey, listen. Let's thank the fans. We've been here since Wednesday night. About time you put the fans first, although I did blow up that fan. You tried to get me like a self.

Hey, Dickface. I took the picture with him. You told him to go fuck himself. No, the main event is about to start. No. The main event walkouts were about to start, and you denied a guy a photo. The 10 best minutes in all of sports, okay? You denied a guy a photo.

I didn't deny him. I took a photo. I will say this. We ran into more MK fans at this boxing event than we have at any other boxing event we've ever done. True or false? True. Definitely true. So, thanks to all the MK fans. Thanks to everyone else who's watching

right now. We appreciate it. You can follow us there on all the socials. We have to catch a bird tomorrow, but Monday, live 11 a.m. in the East, 8 a.m. in the West. We're going to get to morning combat again. We'll react to everything we saw here and, of course, all of the UFC stuff on top of that. Chris Colbert's suit was something, huh? He had a pimp suit at the top, and then he just looked, I don't know, like thunder from down under.

It was very aggressive. Clothing after that. Very, very. But then again, I'm going to go drive, you know. Yes, yes, please. For somebody rich. Can you have my water bottles ready? My mints when I get in there in the charging cable? I've got a charger back there. Look how angry the staff is. They're like, can you guys end this? Yeah, please. Can you have my water bottles ready and my mints when I get in there in the charging table?

I've got a charger back there. Look how angry the staff is. They're like, can you guys end this? Can we just call it a day? Oh, yeah. Now this is where we can just, you know. Well, all the fights are over in the back, too. Yeah, the post limbs.

That's it. We're done here. Vegas was great. This is the first fight I've actually seen inside the arena. Every other fight that I've covered here, they always made me go to studios A and B. That's not fun. Yeah, this is... This is where they sell the drug, Luke, the magic.

Yeah, dude, I've been on the outside looking in for a long time. Yeah, about time. About time, bro, okay? You done? I'm like, how fat I get when I say that. Yeah, I know. We're both pathetic. Fat guy in the winter coat.

Yeah, fat guy. All right. That's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. Thank you guys so much for watching. We've got to get out of here. We're back on Monday morning. Catch us then.

We'll catch up with everything all on the Combat Sports Weekend. See, I thought this all matched, but there's a lot of blue going on, and I had to get this pocket square to kind of even out the multiple blue. I'm not trying to be rude or difficult, but I do think it's time to call a conclusion to today's broadcast. Therapy's working out for you. Well, if I say it otherwise, everyone gets all bitter at me. Yeah, well, one day, yeah. All right.

Why don't you go put some socks on? I mean, could you be worse? Oh, God! Get those fucking things out of here! What are you doing? All right, all right. We're done. That's Brian Campbell.

I'm Luke Thomas. Thanks to everyone in Las Vegas. We're done here.