Caleb Plant doesn’t care what people think of him as a warrior.
That includes the oddsmakers, who have faced arch rival David Benavidez 3-1 in their £168 pay-per-view match on May 25. 3 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Plant’s focus, he said, is to keep performing and win the big games. The rest will take care of themselves.
“If I got so caught up in what people think of me, how they see me, whether they think I could be, as a white kid from Tennessee, I probably wouldn’t have made it very far, ‘ he told Boxing Junkie.
“What am I focusing on [manager] Al [Haymon] think about it, what my team thinks about it, what kind of position it would put me in to get other big skirmishes. I can’t focus on or worry about what other people think.”
Plant (22-1, 13 KO) is no stranger to big fights.
The match against Benavidez will be his third meeting in a row with a current or former world champion. He was stopped by Canelo Alvarez for 11 rounds in November 2021, causing him to lose the IBF belt. And he won the 2022 Knockout title in the ninth round against Anthony Dirrell last October.
Now comes another significant risk, which is exactly what Plant wanted.
He said: “After the game against Canelo Alvarez, I didn’t want to have some group games. “I want the biggest fight I can get. It’s not the biggest fight out there, but after losing, it’s the biggest fight that can happen.
“…With Dirrell being ranked as highly by the WBC as he is, that makes it a title scrapper. I know with David as the ‘temporary’ champion, that puts me in a position to fight him. And, obviously, after winning this fight, it will put me in Canelo’s mandatory position.”
See model? Only important battles against quality objections.
Plant and Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) don’t have much to say about each other but Plant respects him.
“He’s a great fighter,” Plant said. “I never said he was a bad fighter. I’m not interested in fighting the bad guys. I’m interested in fighting good fighters. There are many things he does well. There are just many things I do well.
Plant is considered by some to be more agile, athletic, and skillful than Benavidez. And he’s proven he can hurt anyone with a precise strike on Dirrell, whom Benavidez blocked with a barrage of punches in 2019.
The 30-year-old from Nashville will also bring something less tangible against Benavidez: experience on the biggest stage. There is nothing scarier than an Alvarez fight.
He said: “It is difficult to find an environment as hostile as it has been against Canelo Alvarez. “I can have 50 people in the building out of 18,000 people who support me [at the MGM Grand]. This is a pivotal moment, as well. That’s not something I take for granted. The great thing about the game against Canelo is the experience that I get from playing in these other big games. And experience is important.
“It is the little things that separate you at the highest level. … Experience is not something you have. You have to go through the fire to get it. And I did it.”
The plant was clearly attracted to the flames.
