Caleb Plant primed for comeback fight against Anthony Dirrell on Oct. 15
Caleb Plant evidently hasn’t loss his confidence.
The last time we saw him in the ring he came up short against pound-for-pounder Canelo Alvarez, who stopped the Tennessean in the 11th round to become undisputed super middleweight champion last November in Las Vegas.
Plant returns against veteran Anthony Dirrell on the Deontay Wilder-Robert Helenius card Oct. 15 in Brooklyn and predicts things won’t go well for the former titleholder.
“He’s retiring after this,” Plant said during a virtual news conference. “He’s done. I’m going to beat him in such a way that he won’t want to be part of this anymore.”
Plant (21-1, 12 KOs) had been riding high before the fight with Alvarez, having made three successful defenses of the IBF 168-pound title he won by outpointing Jose Uzcategui in 2019.
And he acquitted himself reasonably well against the Mexican star before he grew weary and got caught with a left-right combination that put him down and hurt him in the penultimate round. He got up but quickly went down again, which ended his night.
Plant looks back on the setback as a lesson learned.
“The biggest thing I took from the Canelo Alvarez fight is the experience in general,” he said. “Experience isn’t something you can buy. You have to go through it to get it. Obviously I came up short and there’s no excuses there.
“I got right back with my team and went back to work.”
He certainly didn’t choose a pushover for his comeback opponent.
Dirrell (34-2-2, 25 KOs) is 37 and only 1-1-1 in his last three fights but remains capable. He was competitive against David Benavidez before falling victim to a horrible cut and Benavidez’s big shots in the ninth round in 2019, which cost him his belt.
He then drew with slick Kyrone Davis in February of last year before stopping journeyman Marcos Hernandez in four rounds eight-plus months later.
Plant insists he isn’t look past Dirrell but also took some shots at him.
“He’s never had one successful title defense,” he said. “He knocked out a blown-up middleweight (Hernandez) in his last fight. We’re not even in the same galaxy as that guy he fought. The list goes on and on. …
“He says what he wants, but when is the last time he beat a true super middleweight?”
Whatever Dirrell brings, Plant says he’ll be ready for it.
He said he has had excellent sparring in training camp, against Carlos Adames, Shane Mosley Jr., Davis and others. And he has had respected trainer Stephen Edwards in camp, which he says has bolstered his preparation.
He plans to demonstrate that on Oct. 15.
“I’m only focused on the task at hand and the fight in front of me,” he said. “Just because I know that I’m going to beat him, doesn’t mean that I’m looking past him.
“The only way to get to your long term goals is by accomplishing your short term ones.”
