Benavidez/Plant Preview

On the aspiring young Renton champion, and his superb, compelling( if overmatched) pro of an opponent.

To this grandson of a bartender who watched tapes of the Univision classic fights replays her brown former customers gave to her; David Benavidez fights like another imperfect great fighter of half a century ago. Like the Renton super middleweight champion, Ruben Olivares was a terrific, action fighter who could knock out with a bomb of a right hand and a gift for infighting that could break down your body. Also like Benavidez, Olivarez often fought through his own chemical and physical neglect. Winning 52 out of his first 54 flights by knockout, he was the most beloved Mexican fighter before Julio Caesar Chavez, but cocaine alcohol and celebrity took him out before he was 30 years old. ( Ricardo Garibay, one of the more underrated writers of the latin boom era, wrote a book on how drug culture and celebrity begin to decay him.)

So it has been a wonderful surprise to see Benavidez publicly going to therapy and showing up to fight Caleb Plant in the best shape of his life. The Las Vegas via Tennessee Transplant, Plant is a terrific Pro with a lot of heart. The story of his trailer roots, and blunt, post-online social justice sense of multiculturalism has won him a following and an earned position as a seven-figure fighter. In impeccable shape himself, Plant could find Benavidez like a lot of fighters with coke habits, with less of himself than he thought even when he got sober, and pull off a victory. The problem is, in his fights with Canelo…