Boxing Challenge: Plant dethrones Uzcategui

Caleb Plant won all the early rounds and took advantage of an off-balance Jose Uzcategui twice to score flash knockdowns that gave him an insurmountable lead on the scorecards before using the boxing version of the "Four Corners" (Phil Ford was unavailable for comment) to run out the clock, upset Uzcategui and take away the IBF super-middleweight title.

Uzcategui won the final five rounds on my scorecard, but the knockdowns put him so far behind Plant that he won those rounds mainly due to desperate aggression.
Even though Uzcategui knew he needed a knockout to win, he still didn't move his hands enough to seriously hurt Plant, who protected his lead with holding, grabbing, and clutching a frustrated Uzcategui.

Plant's win and performance came as a surprise to me ( I had Plant a 115-111 winner) and I'm still not sold on him in the long run as he seems to be a very beatable champion.
However, he has plenty of room to improve, isn't in an overwhelmingly strong division, and fights for the PBC, which means he'll likely be matched very carefully until an eventual mandatory bout.
My guess is that if Anthony Dirrell (PBC) wins the vacant WBC title over Avni Yildrim, they'll build for a Plant-Dirrell fight in the usual PBC manner in which both fighters will fight two showcase fights and take a year to eighteen months to build for a fight that few are hungering for anyway.

As for Uzcategui, a fighter that was highly thought of by many and avoided by many as well, this was a very disappointing outing and he'll have to start over because he still won't be a likely opponent for top fighters because of his ability when he's at his best.
This was still a setback for Uzcategui, who had a national showcase and the ability to fight fighters from any promotional unit or network and whether due to overconfidence or a lack of preparation, came up lacking on a night that he could have made a huge statement.

In the co-feature, Brandon Figueroa was very impressive in a three-round crushing of Moises Flores in a junior featherweight eliminator.
Figueroa punished Flores from the opening bell and sent him to the floor with a left hook in the third round.
Flores rose but was hit with a volley of punches that culminated with a right hand that dropped Flores into a corner where the referee called off the bout.
Figueroa will now be the mandatory contender for WBA champion Danny Roman in what should be an interesting mix of styles and a very good matchup.
I slightly favor Roman in that one, but it's very close between the pair.

Ramon Malpica and I each start the 2019 boxing challenge with one point for the Brandon Figueroa victory.