Caleb Truax says Caleb Plant was too elusive for him
Caleb Truax had a simple explanation for what went wrong against super middleweight titleholder Caleb Plant on Saturday in Los Angeles: “I wasn’t able to put a glove on him.”
That’ll do it.
Plant, making the third defense of his belt, won every round on all three official cards to retain his title and possibly set up a title-unification showdown with Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez in September.
Truax, a former titleholder, was correct when he said he had difficulty landing punches. He connected on 47 of them the entire fight, less than four per round, according to CompuBox.
Truax (31-5-2, 19 KOs) had been dealing with injury problems – a torn Achilles tendon and a chronically sore elbow, to be specific – but he said going into his meeting with Plant that he was healthy.
He simply didn’t have the physical tools to cope with Plant.
“I’m a little disappointed. I wanted to put pressure on him and make it a dogfight, but he was elusive. He was able to escape out the back door. I wasn’t able to put a glove on him,” said Truax, 37.
“I knew he was going to be quick, but he was a little more elusive than I expected. It wasn’t a fast-paced fight and credit to him for that. I wanted it to be a fast-paced fight and put pressure on him, but he controlled the pace and he was very elusive.
“I was never buzzed or hurt. I felt like my conditioning was very good the whole fight. He just jabbed the heck out of me. I’m going to go home and talk to my family and see what the next step is. I still feel like I have something to offer the game.”