Plant to headline February 15th PBC on FOX show in Nashville, Angulo out
Plant’s highest-ranked contender is Vincent Feigenbutz
IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant has gotten a location and lost an opponent for his February 15th PBC on FOX main event. Mike Coppinger reports that “Sweet Hand’s” second title defense will land in Nashville against TBA, as original foe Alfredo Angulo is “out of the running.”
As far as unexpected opponent changes go, this is among the most welcome in recent memory. Angulo (26-7, 21 KO) “earned” a title shot with his upset of Peter Quillin last September, but it’s a truth universally acknowledged that “Perro” has been shot for the past five years. Though he still packs some power, it’s difficult to imagine him landing anything of note against the fleet-of-hand-and-foot Plant (19-0, 11 KO), who followed up his title-winning January decision over Jose Uzcategui with a thrashing of Mike Lee in July.
There’s no guarantee that the new opponent will be better, of course, but at least Angulo isn’t getting hurt.
Plant technically hasn’t had a mandatory challenger throughout his reign; as when the Lee fight was revealed, the IBF’s top two super middleweight slots are empty. Vincent Feigenbutz remains the highest-ranked contender at #3, and the IBF could just promote him to #1, as its champions are obligated to face their mandatories every nine months.