When Caleb Plant walked out of the ring after a vicious one-punch knockout of Anthony Dirrell on Saturday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, in a super middleweight bout, he had to think he’d stolen the show.
There was only one fight remaining and the KO was not just amazing, it was a KO of the Year-type performance.
The problem for Plant is that Deontay Wilder was in the following fight. And as he has done so many times, the former WBC heavyweight champion stole the show with a brutal, incredible knockout of Robert Helenius in the card’s main event.
Helenius outlanded Wilder 5-3 in total punches, and Wilder didn’t seem to get everything into his shot. But Wilder, who is one of the great punchers in the history of boxing, doesn’t need to land his best to finish an opponent in brutal fashion.
Helenius pursued Wilder, who backed into a neutral corner. Wilder threw a right hand that maybe traveled two feet at most and hit Helenius on the nose. Helenius went down instantly and didn’t move for several scary moments. The knockout came at 2:57 of the first.
It was a reminder to everyone who may have forgotten of what Wilder is capable of doing. Had anyone seen Wilder’s classic third fight with Fury last year in Las Vegas, they never would have questioned his ability to knock anyone out.
But Wilder made an emphatic statement with that KO on Saturday.
“I was making him reach,” Wilder said. “I was trying to keep my distance. Robert, he has the heart of a champion. I knew what he was capable of. I didn’t take him lightly at all. I didn’t take him for granted. I could look in his eyes [and see] that he really wanted this. He wanted to be the first [of his] countrymen to be the heavyweight champion of the world. With that being said, they’re going to come. I knew that from Robert and so I had to take my time.”
But with Wilder, not much is needed to end a fight. He said he’d like to fight unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, but said he was open to fighting anyone, including ex-champion Andy Ruiz.
A Wilder-Anthony Joshua fight would be massive, but Wilder’s power makes him a big fight for any heavyweight in the world.
Plant hit like a heavyweight with his hook on Dirrell. They were battling in the center of the ring in the ninth round of a fight in which Plant was in control when he threw a combination to the body.
Before Dirrell could react, Plant unleashed what is probably the best left hook he’s ever thrown. He came upstairs quickly and hit Dirrell on the chin, putting Dirrell down and out instantly. The referee could have counted to 500 and Dirrell wouldn’t have beaten the count.
It was an amazing knockout, but it’s always hard to out-KO the KO King. And Plant found that out when Wilder stepped into the ring a few moments after his work was done.
