Plant to make first title defense against Lee
The fight could be the lead-in for the Pacquiao-Thurman pay-per-view.
Caleb Plant won the IBF super middleweight title in January, beating Jose Uzcategui, and now he’s set to defend the belt for the first time on July 20.
Mike Coppinger reports that the fight will air on FOX and likely serve as the lead-in for a Pacquiao-Thurman pay-per-view that same night. Plant-Lee is to be officially announced later this evening on the FOX broadcast of Hurd vs Williams.
Plant (18-0, 10 KO) is a Tennessee native, a skilled and slick boxer nicknamed “Sweethands,” and has become one of the top 168-pound fighters in the sport.
Lee (21-0, 11 KO) is a 31-year-old guy who went to Notre Dame, which for years Top Rank thought meant Lee was going to be some massive boxing star. They even got him into a Subway commercial long before anyone knew who he was, which for that matter they still really don’t.
In his nine-year pro boxing career, Lee has been content to take fight he has basically no chance of losing, and he’s done it all as a light heavyweight. He’s never made 168 pounds before — in fact, the lowest he’s ever weighed in is 173.
After eventually quietly parting with Top Rank, Lee headlined a few shows on CBS Sports Network that nobody watched.
My point is this is every bit as lousy a fight as Golovkin-Rolls or Valdez-Sanchez or Fury-Schwarz or whatever other fight you’ve hated recently.