Caleb Plant (23-2, 14 KOs) kept his career alive with a ninth-round technical knockout victory over Trevor McCumby (28-1, 21 KOs) to win the WBA interim super middleweight title in Saturday night’s preliminary fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Former IBF middleweight champion Plant was coming off an 18-month layoff and didn’t look his old self at the start, suffering injuries in rounds one, two and four. Plant was clearly bothered by McCumby’s power, speed and explosiveness at the start.

McCumby knocked Plant down with a right punch to the body in the fourth round. Plant was backing away at the time and was not in a good position to catch the blow to the body.

After the fourth, Plant adjusted and forced McCumby to fight on the inside, forcing him into the ropes and landing precise strikes. In a big mistake, McCumby allowed Plant to hold him there for a long time.

Between rounds, McCumby’s corner didn’t tell him to stay off the ropes until the seventh round, but by then he had taken a lot of blows to the head. It looked like Plant had taken the will to fight out of him by spending so much time on the ropes.

In rounds eight and nine, Plant attacked a tired and beaten-looking McCumby, forcing him into the ropes and dominating him in the center of the ring.

When Plant hit the flap to signal that there were 10 seconds left in the ninth round, he unleashed a barrage of punches, many of which hit McCumby in the head. Referee Allen Huggins then stopped the fight with one second left in the ninth round and called it a halt.

Overall, it was an OK performance from Plant, but not a great performance that would suggest he could beat the better opponents in the 168-pound division. Based on this performance, Plant does not deserve a rematch against unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.

Before tonight’s fight, Plant talked about how the WBA would elevate him from interim champion to regular champion if David Morrell doesn’t return to the 168 division. Plant said that Canelo would want to fight him if he is elevated to regular champion, but that probably won’t happen.

Plant didn’t look good enough to deserve a rematch against Canelo, and McCumby wasn’t a big name. If Plant wants a rematch against Canelo, he’ll need to beat these types of fighters:

1. David Morrell
2. Christian Mbilli
3. Osley’s English
4. Diego Pacheco
5. David Benavidez