Mike Plania eyes title shot at super bantamweight
Mike Plania after stunning Joshua Greer in their catchweight fight at MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas. Photo from Top Rank
MANILA, Philippines — Fresh off the biggest win of his career, Mike Plania is ready for the top fighters at super bantamweight, his adviser Sean Gibbons said.
Plania stunned heavily-favored Joshua Greer Jr., who came into the fight as the top WBO contender at 118 pounds, by majority decision last week at MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas.
“He’s not fighting at 118,” Gibbons told BoxingScene.com. “We’re looking for a title shot for him at 122. He’d be happy taking on any champion he can get a shot at, at 122 pounds.”
The 23-year-old Plania, a natural 122-pounder, and Greer fought at a contracted catchweight of 120 pounds.
By beating Greer, who also entered the bout as the No. 2 challenger for Naoya Inoue’s IBF bantamweight crown, Plania could be another option for Top Rank.
But Gibbons begs to differ, citing that it would be a painstaking ordeal for Plania to go back to 118 pounds.
“It would be ugly. You can say, ‘Oh, he got to 119½. What’s one pound?’ Well, one pound might as well be a hundred pounds at a certain point. The body just tells you, ‘No more. That’s it,’” said Gibbons, referring to Plania’s official weight against Greer.
One possible matchup for Plania down the road is Uzbekistan’s Murodjon Akhmadaliev, who holds the 122-pound IBF and WBA (Super) belts.
