Bradley: Plant more skilled than Benavidez but more likely to fold late
Timothy Bradley wants to give the edge to Caleb Plant over David Benavidez, but questions his ability to keep it all together going down the stretch of the fight.
During a video interview with Fight Hype, former champion Tim Bradley gives his deep dive on the big upcoming clash between David Benavidez and Caleb Plant. Bradley talks a bit about the style matchup in this fight and says it’ll only be bolstered by the bad blood between the fighters. Bradley also explains why he thinks Plant will be up on points before unraveling late to a stoppage loss. Here’s some excerpts of what Bradley had to say.
“(Plant) looks like he in tremendous shape for this fight, and he gonna need to be, ‘cause he is facing a monster,” Bradley said. “Plant has more skill, no doubt. More skill, no doubt about it.
“And David is an aggressive pressure boxer. He puts a ton of pressure on you but what makes him so difficult is he’s long, he’s tall, has a lot of leverage on his punches. He has underrated quickness, great hand speed, he knows how to cut off the ring — he cuts off the ring real well. He’s a guy that constantly puts pressure on you and he tries to beat the fight out of you. (Benavidez) wants to put enough pressure on you to make you just cough it up or put you in a disadvantageous position and take advantage of it.
“As far as Plant goes, Plant has more boxing skills. Usually in fights like this where you have the aggressive puncher and a boxer, usually I lean towards the boxer. Plant definitely can win this fight, he can outbox him, he has the better legs, better footwork, and he definitely has the better tactics to go along with him.
“But, again, dude. The will to win, that conditioning, that always pressing buttons, always testing your opponent — that’s Benavidez. And after watch Plant against Canelo and seeing how he faded towards the back end of the fight, and it wasn’t necessarily how he faded physically, it was more he faded mentally. I look at that and I can’t get that out of my mind.
“No matter how much skills this guy got, I feel that if you put enough pressure on Plant he will eventually concede. He will give in. And so, I can see Plant winning on the scorecards before the stoppage. I can see him up on the cards, boxing beautifully, peppering the crap out of Benavidez, just bruising him up, outbox him, slick boxing. But I just see Benavidez catching up with him, cutting him off, making him ask questions again just like Canelo did, and then catching him and then it’s over.
“So if I was a betting man and I put money down, I would say Plant by decision and then I would hedge that with a knockout for Benavidez, no doubt about it.
“I’m gonna go with Benavidez in this matchup, I think Benavidez will catch him and stop him late. I would say 11-12, he’ll stop him.”