Jermall Charlo's next fight: With the Plant rivalry dead, all signs should point to one big name
LAS VEGAS — Armando Resendiz overcame long odds to convincingly defeat Caleb Plant on Saturday and win an interim championship at super middleweight, torching tentative plans to stage a blockbuster all-American fight between Plant and rival Jermall Charlo later this year.
Charlo did his part to keep the box-office bout together as he shook off any ring rust from a lengthy absence to knock Thomas LaManna down three times for a stoppage victory, largely thanks to a cultured jab and transferrable power from his days at middleweight, and under.
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Plant told Uncrowned and other reporters backstage that he'll likely pursue a second fight with Resendiz because of a rematch clause in their bout agreement.
And though that would leave Charlo with no immediately obvious opponent, there is an enticing alternative for Charlo to revisit, and it's a man he's had no shortage of bad blood with in the past.
Meet Chris Eubank Jr. — arguably the hottest commodity in UK boxing right now outside of the big heavyweight Brits.
Eubank's stock has never been higher than it is today, as he handily defeated Conor Benn during a Battle of Britain in front of 67,484 people at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on April 26.
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It's been a long time coming for Eubank to become an overnight sensation, but it has its roots in his famous fighting father, Chris Eubank Sr. — a British boxing legend — and his own gradual plod to become a beloved personality himself.
I first met Eubank Jr. eight years ago when arranging interviews with him at his basement boxing club in Hove, on the south coast of England. He was cerebral in his responses. He always seemed cool, calm and collected, and was yet able to turn vicious for sporadic in-ring moments after vaulting the ropes and into fights on national television.
Despite his Louis Vuitton-wrapped motor vehicles, and Floyd Mayweather-esque fashion sense, he was never too Hollywood to turn down time to talk whenever we saw one another in and around events. He's long had a superstar's aura, but with a man-of-the-people mentality.
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He once signed a fan's microwave, which sparked an eBay bidding war before the unit eventually sold for a £65,900 price tag ($90,000). Eubank promised to donate a matching figure to charity.
Mainstream audiences in Britain warmed to Eubank over the years. The more they saw of him, the more they liked him, even though he was branded difficult to work with by veteran boxing promoters. He never needed a second invitation to try to put them, or his opponents, in their place when on stage. Just ask Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren, whom he called scumbags in a recent statement he later retracted, or Liam Smith, who Eubank handled with class when the boxer implied he was gay. Eubank, unfazed, wore a rainbow armband at a later weigh-in event. Smith issued a groveling apology.
You could probably ask Jermall Charlo, too.
It was 2019 when Charlo and Eubank met each other for the first time.
Chris Eubank Jr. makes his inconic ring walk alongside his father. ()
(Mark Robinson via Getty Images)
Charlo had already established himself as a world champion boxer by this point, having won the IBF light middleweight title with a third-round knockout win over Cornelius Bundrage in 2015. He'd beaten Austin Trout and Julian Williams, too. And he'd even become a two-weight champ as he won the WBC's belt at middleweight in subsequent years.
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Charlo was the more decorated fighter by some margin.
But Eubank was unimpressed.
Charlo trounced Dennis Hogan in seven rounds at a Premier Boxing Champions event inside Barclays Center, Brooklyn, on Dec. 7, 2019. Eubank, also on the bill, picked up a second-round win after Matvey Korobov suffered a dislocated shoulder.
'He is not a likable guy,' Eubank said of Charlo on "The PBC Podcast" at the time. 'Some people say I'm arrogant or cocky, but I'm a down-to-Earth, decent guy. This guy's head is in the clouds. He thinks he's more than he is.'
His lightning-quick win over Korobov, a fighter who took Charlo the distance albeit in a 2018 loss, was all the boxing math Eubank needed to feel confident if he were to ever stand across from the American in a headlining fight. 'I would take great pleasure in taking him down a peg or two,' Eubank said.
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Charlo clapped back at Eubank, of course. He accused both Junior and Senior of running their mouths — and being run out of the U.K. At a later event, he said Eubank was just trying to talk his way into a fight.
Eubank need not do any talking to warrant a fight this time, having raised his profile enormously since then. He's a tempting consideration for Saul Alvarez. Should "Canelo" ever want to fight in front of a sell-out crowd in a U.K. soccer stadium, then he knows who to go to after Terence Crawford in September.
Charlo, too, is trying to get Alvarez's attention.
'I'd rather fight 'Canelo' [now] than Plant,' he told Uncrowned and other reporters last weekend, at the PBC on Prime Video card.
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So to stake a further claim to a "Canelo" payday, Charlo and Eubank should fight each other.
Eubank has a name value that should be attractive to Charlo right now, and Charlo can provide something that Eubank dreams of, too.
Eubank vs. Charlo is a big-ticket event due to their history, respective journeys, and for how it amplifies an under-appreciated boxing rivalry — U.S. vs U.K.
These fights have typically delivered modern-day classics, and we should do more of them.
There was Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder's all-time great heavyweight trilogy, Kell Brook's besting of Shawn Porter, and Josh Taylor's edging of Regis Prograis in a Fight of the Year contender. The States got their licks in, too, with Errol Spence smashing Brook in his hometown, and Ryan Garcia climbing off the canvas to finish Luke Campbell.
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Eubank has great familiarity with the States, as he attended Spring Valley High School in Las Vegas as a teenager, and has a deep understanding of American boxing culture.
He learned his trade in places like the Top Rank gym and other clubs in Las Vegas.
'It's where I would get my ass kicked every week for months, and years, and that's built the foundation of what I am now,' Eubank told Sky Sports. 'Being in these gyms in Vegas, traveling around, sparring guys [and] learning.'
He's been to resident DJ Steve Aoki's home, played chess with Dan Bilzerian, and trained under Floyd Mayweather Sr.'s watchful eye at the Mayweather Boxing Club. The Fight Capital of the World is his 'home away from home,' Eubank said in a Boxxer promo, last year. 'I spend a lot of time out here.'
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The only thing he's not done here, though, is fight.
"It's been a dream of mine to fight in Vegas ever since I started," Eubank said last year.
"I still haven't done it,' he added. 'It's a very important thing for me to do before I retire.'
The city has numerous venues to pick from. Small hall shows land at The Chelsea inside The Cosmopolitan. There's an intimate venue at Virgin Hotels, too. Slightly bigger events headline at Michelob Ultra Arena inside the Mandalay Bay Resort. But the marquee matchups take place at either the MGM Grand Garden Arena — the site Manny Pacquiao picked to make his boxing comeback against Mario Barrios on July 19 — or the T-Mobile Arena, where "Canelo" has been fighting on Mexican holidays.
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'For me, it was always the MGM Grand [Garden Arena],' Eubank said. 'That's where the massive fights were. [But the T-Mobile Arena], in a short space of time, has actually surpassed the MGM.'
'One day, we're going to fight here,' Eubank finished. 'It's a dream of mine.'
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