The idea of a showdown with fellow unbeaten super middleweight David Benavidez once graced the thoughts of Caleb Plant.

That ship has sailed long ago.

Naturally, a fight between the two remains discussed among industry insiders for a number of reasons. Both boxers are still unbeaten, in the prime of their respective careers and proudly represent Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) through their shared high-powered adviser Al Haymon. The fight, however, made more sense when their separate title reigns overlapped. Plant remains the undefeated IBF champ, while Benavidez is a former two-time WBC titlist.

Benavidez (23-0, 20KOs) takes the first step towards a hoped-for third title reign as he next faces Ronald Ellis (18-1-2, 12KOs). The bout—which serves as a WBC super middleweight title eliminator—takes place this Saturday, live on Showtime from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. A win by Benavidez could eventually put him in line for the WBC belt he’s held twice before, both times losing the title outside the ring.

There is a touch of poetic justice to Plant (21-0, 12KOs) getting to the WBC belt first, enough to where this weekend’s bout is of little interest to him.

“Ronald Eliis was my sparring partner for the [Feigenbutz] fight. David is fighting my sparring partner, really,” Plant told BoxingScene. “That’s really all I have to say about it.”

Plant—the reigning IBF champ from Las Vegas by way of Ashland City, Tennessee—is on course to face reigning WBC/WBA super middleweight titlist Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (54-1-2, 37KOs) later this year, should the Mexican superstar get past WBO 168-pound title claimant Billy Joe Saunders in their May 8 three-belt unification clash. Such a bout would likely take place in September, with the best-case scenario for Benavidez having established himself by that point as the mandatory challenger in waiting.

For now, there is only one Mexican super middleweight in Plant’s sights and it’s not the one fighting this weekend.

“By the time I get to Canelo, it will be even bigger than we first began discussing the fight,” notes Plant, who is coming off of a 12-round win over former titlist Caleb Truax in January. “We can do it out here in Vegas. We can have a full crowd and give the fans an historic fight.

At the end, I will give everyone the first ever undisputed super middleweight champion.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox