The most notable action that occurred this past weekend saw a double-headlining show featuring Caleb Plant, Jermall Charlo and their respective opponents. Held at the Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday, May 31st, the show had clearly been angling for both American fighters to win and face each other later this year, though plans would be ruined as Plant suffered a clear loss to a unheralded and relatively unknown contender. The event was broadcasted on Amazon Prime and promoted by TGB Promotions on behalf of Premier Boxing Champions (PBC).

Caleb Plant Vs. Jose Armando Resendiz

Fighting at super middleweight (168 lbs), Caleb Plant (23-3, 14 KO’s) and Jose Armando Resendiz (16-2, 11 KO’s) in a 12-round non-title bout, Plant was clearly expected to win quite easily due to his experience and overall perceived boxing ability. Plant’s WBA interim title would be on the line.

Having staved off the effects of inactivity by fighting in September, Plant would heavily disappoint as the 26-year old Resendiz proved to be the better man on the night despite his own struggles in establishing himself as a 168 lbs contender.

Relying mostly on aggressiveness, Resendiz’ pressure proved to be the breaking point of the match as the 32-year old Plant was simply incapable of handling the Mexican fighter.

Looking like a deteriorated fighter, Plant looked too slow and weak in many spurts, further failing to apply his footwork and usual out-box skills to allow Resendiz to take the majority of rounds. While the fight was competitive, with Plant’s style still allowing several rounds, Resendiz’ work rate and effectiveness largely seemed to tilt the fight in his favor.

Despite Resendiz’ clear victory, the ultimate result would be a split-decision (SD), with one judge scoring it a 115-113 score in favor of Plant, while the two other judges scored it 116-112 twice in favor of Resendiz, allowing the younger Mexican fighter to win a pivotal career match over a former world champion.

Resendiz further earned Plant’s WBA interim 168-pound title as a result, though a world is unlikely anytime soon as current undisputed champion Canelo Alvarez prepares to defend all his titles against Terence Crawford in September.

Notably, Plant had a 95% chance of winning with the pre-match odds putting him as a 20-to-1 favorite:

Jermall Charlo vs. Thomas LaManna

The other super middleweight bout of the card, the co-main event between Jermall Charlo (34-0, 23 KO’s) and Thomas LaManna (39-6-1, 18 KO’s), was also not evenly-sided.

35-year old Charlo did well despite appearing sluggish or slow on quite a few occasions. Faced against LaManna ― a fighter with good experience but dubious ability that barely made him a fringe contender, the gap between the two became evident in just the earlier rounds as LaManna found himself knocked down in the 3rd, 4th and 5th rounds of the fight.

Scheduled for 10 rounds, the fight would just 6 rounds as the referee decided to intervene in the 6th round to stop the fight, allowing Charlo to claim a rather dominant victory by technical knockout (TKO) ― his first KO win since 2019.

Undercard fights:

The most notable fight on the undercard saw prospect Curmel Moton (8-0, 6 KO’s) face a severely low-rated fighter in Cuban Renny Viamonte Mastrapa (4-2-1, 2 KO’s) at lightweight (135 lbs). Notably Mastrapa was pulled down from the super lightweight (140 lbs) division where he’s fought at over the past couple of fights.

It was a dominant match for Moton as he won all 8 rounds to win by unanimous decision (UD), but given the type of opponent he faces, the victory was far from impressive given the expectations of a knockout win. This now brings up question marks on Moton’s development and whether he truly has the potential to be a significant fighter in the sport.

Will Charlo vs. Plant still happen?

The clear goal by Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) was to stage a future match between Jermall Charlo and Caleb Plant who have a known feud spanning back from several years when they were engaged in an out-ring scuffle. With Plant having lost his bout, the potential bout the two former world champions seems to have lost a lot of its luster, though with few options for staging notable shows, the PBC might still attempt to hold a Charlo-Plant bout later this year.