Edgar Berlanga began a “F--- Plant” chant during his post-fight interview Saturday night.

The businessman within the smiling Berlanga knows, though, that he needs Plant to some degree if he wants to make a much more meaningful fight than the complete mismatch he had just won by first-round technical knockout in Orlando, Florida. Plant, a former IBF super middleweight champ, remains much more credible than Jaime Munguia, who will try to avenge a stunning sixth-round knockout loss to light-punching Frenchman Bruno Surace three months ago on the Canelo Alvarez-William Scull undercard May 3 at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“Oh, it’s important. I wanna shut his mouth,” Berlanga told DAZN’s Chris Mannix in the ring when asked about boxing Plant. “You know, he already got knocked out twice. You know, he got beat up by Benavidez [in a points loss] and he got knocked out by Canelo. So, it’s time for me to retire him and send him back, like [Eddie Hearn] said, [to] get a beer and rest off in the sunset.”

Plant, 32, expresses the same disdain for Berlanga as the 27-year-old, self-professed “Chosen One” has directed toward him. Representatives for Riyadh Season reached out to Plant and Berlanga’s handlers about fighting next before Berlanga (23-1, 18 KOs) dropped Puerto Rico’s Jonathan Gonzalez-Ortiz (20-1-1, 16 KOs) twice on his way to an easy victory Saturday night.

Berlanga’s manager, Keith Connolly, stressed that he wanted to wait for Berlanga to fight Gonzalez-Ortiz before engaging in discussions about opposing Plant. Turki Alalshikh, head of Riyadh Season and owner of The Ring, has a working relationship with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, but Berlanga became a promotional free agent after he defeated Gonzalez-Ortiz.

“Now I’m a free agent,” Berlanga said. “You know, and there’s no problems or anything [like what is] swarming around on the Internet with Eddie Hearn or nothing. You know, business is business at the end of the day. You know, he was a great promoter, you know, and I’m just looking forward to the future.”

Plant (23-2, 14 KOs) is aligned with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions. PBC fighters have, however, fought on Riyadh Season shows.

Most recently, WBC middleweight champ Carlos Adames fought to a suspect split draw with British contender Hamzah Sheeraz on the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Biovl undercard February 22 at ANB Arena. Another PBC-affiliated fighter, Rolando “Rolly” Romero, is scheduled to box Ryan Garcia in the 12-round, 147-pound main event on The Ring’s “FATAL FURY: The City of Wolves” card May 2 at Times Square in New York.

“I like the Caleb Plant fight,” Hearn said. “I think that’s a brilliant fight. You know, two guys that are really gonna spice it up for the press conference. Two great fighters, two great 168-pounders.”

Hearn acknowledged the dissention between Berlanga and Matchroom after Alvarez beat Berlanga by unanimous decision in their 12-round fight for Alvarez’s Ring, WBA, WBC and WBO belts September 14 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. They disagreed about opponents and commensurate purses before Matchroom eventually scrapped a March 8 show Berlanga was scheduled to headline in San Juan, Puerto Rico and placed him in a low-profile co-feature Saturday night at Caribe Royale Orlando.

Berlanga challenged Alvarez on a PBC pay-per-view show. He made a purse in excess of $9 million for opposing boxing’s biggest star in the United States, but Hearn said he would “love to” work with Berlanga again following a fruitful four-fight run.

Hearn signed Berlanga once the Brooklyn native bought himself out of his contract with former promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc.

“Listen, we’ve had a great run,” Hearn said. “You know, I’m close with Keith and listen, this situation wasn’t ideal. But we did what we promised in the contract. And maybe we all could’ve done better to get something else, but we got the fight done, we got the win and he moves on. So, you know, for us, you know, we’ll sit down and hopefully the relationship extends. We’ve done great business together. But if not, we’ll have a nice beer together and sail off into the sunset. But I expect to be working with Edgar Berlanga again and I think we can deliver him big fights.”