Speaker 1: I'd like to welcome to our podcast this week. It
is the former IVF supermitaweight world champion. It is the
current WBA Interim Supermit aweight title holder, Caleb Plant. Caleb,
I'll tell the folks You're going to defend that belt
against Armando Raceendez. It's the main event of the PBC
on Prime Video card, who will take place on May
thirty first at the Mandala Bay in Las Vegas. Welcome
to the show. Thank you very much for doing this, Caleb, sir,
thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure to
talk to you. You know, when I was looking at
this matchup, Caleb, I thought, I'm looking at your record.
I know your record, well, I know his record a
bit was looking at it also on paper, and we
know fights are not fought on paper. But you you
have fought at such a much higher level for such
a consistent period of time compared to your opponent. He
got knocked out by Elijah Garci in twenty twenty three.
It's only had the one fight since then, a six
rounder against a five and two opponent that was earlier
this year. So when you look at the opponent and
you assess him, you study for him, What do you
know about him and how do you approach that type
of opponent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well he's moved up to sixty eight and he
does have him a win there, and you know, this
is a big moment for him. So I know that
he's putting a lot of putting a lot into this
and you know it could be a life changing moment
for him. So but it's a life changing moment for
me too, you know, to retain my title here the
words and still and to you know, I got a
son on the way this summer, and I mean everything
for me to bring him in and on a high
note and him be able to say, you know, Daddy's
still the champ. So I've been putting a lot into
this as well, and I got a lot on the line,
and but I know he's coming with everything. He's guys,
he's got a good trainer in Manny Roebles. But he's tough,
but tough enough.
Speaker 1: So I mean, on the one hand, you're supposed to
win the fight. I'm not saying he's not going to
get a great effort and do his damn just to
take care of his business. But you're the guy the
a side. You're the main event. You're supposed to win
the fight and do so. I think most people look
at it and the odds are pretty wide. On the
other hand, if you don't, you know, you get a
lot of criticism. I mean you're used to criticism, obviously,
but how do you sort of deal with that knowing
that I'm supposed to do one thing, and even if
I do it, but I don't do it as well
as people think. People are gonna, maybe, you know, criticize
me about it? Do you care? Because even permeate your
brain at all, I.
Speaker 2: Think it's best to just block out the noise, you know.
It's not my job to I feel like over the
over the years, I've gained a lot of fans, you know.
I feel like I'm in a position, you know. Once
I feel like I was like no one believed in me,
not very many people supported me. But over the last
you know, three years or so, I feel like I'm
almost one of boxing's most loved you know, and I
feel the love. But at the same time, I can't
fight for the fans, you know. I have to listen
to my team. I have to listen to my coaches,
and as you well know, box is not a popularity contest.
And I feel like a lot of fans these days,
it's like if they don't have the biggest social media following,
if they maybe haven't heard of the guy, or if
he's not you know, some A plus superstar, then he's
a bum. And he's not even supposed to touch you.
It's just supposed to be like heavy bag work for you.
And as you said, you know, fights aren't one on paper,
they're one in the ring. And people try to say
thinking the same thing about Trevor mccumby, And even though
I handle that in fashion and I feel like he
only had a couple of moments, it's like they try
to make it seem like the same thing with Tever mccomby.
And so I've been through that with Trevor, and I
don't need to listen to the fans. I'm gonna go
in there and do what I do. He's gonna try
his damns, and but I'm gonna get the job done
Regardless'm gonna get my hand raised, and I plan on
a b in fashion. But regardless, no matter what happens,
we're gonna hear the words in Still.
Speaker 1: You know you mentioned about now being over the last
few years, becoming more of a love fighter, less less
less hate, so to speak. I think I know the
reason why that is. Why do you think that is? Uh,
I'll tell you why. I think it is okay, Because
you're fighting the best guys. You're not Duncan David Benovitez.
You're not Dunkin Canelo Alas you know, even when you
fight Canelo, you give a great effort, you win some
rounds you have you know, you didn't win, but you
had a hell of a fight. You know, you fought
you know a lot of quality opponents. You know, you
went in there and you fought Darrell and you fought
you know, true acts, I mean championship level fighters consistently.
Scottigi him too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean coming up that was always
my goal. I felt like a lot of fighters talk
about it, but they ain't always about that action, you know.
Like I have a quote that's been floating around where
you know, the number one goal is to stay undefeated, right,
but if that comes at the cost and at the
price of never facing the best, then what much does
that O mean?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: And uh, that's coming from a true competitor who hates losing.
Who hates losing more than he likes winning? And but
I really want to test my skills against the best.
And if you want your name in that big book,
if you want legacy, then you got to fight the best.
And my dad would always say, is you know, some
fighters worry about money, some fighters worry about legacy. But
the legacy fights are the big money fights.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: That's where you get the big money is in the
legacy fights.
Speaker 1: So so when you when you look at the card, Okay,
you're the main event and you're taking on Resendas. We
know he's in a coming hunger. He wants to grab
that bell from you and everything else. But we also
know that part of this event is the fact that
you have in the co feature Jamal Charlow taking on
Thomas Lamata, and PBC is not then shy. When they
announced the fight between you and Zendas and Charlote against Lamada,
they made a point says, listen, you know, if our
main guys, meaning yourself and Charlo, are the winners, we're
gonna make a fight between those two guys as a
big fight later this year. So how do you sort
of focus on your opponent? But also know that Charlo
looms in the future.
Speaker 2: Just worry about right now, focus on right now. You know,
the world is always trying to get you to and
I'm not saying you personally because you're just asking a question,
but the world is always like, well what about what
about Charlo? And I feel like if you haven't been
a high level athlete, you may not understand. And again
I'm not.
Speaker 1: Talking to you. Well I'm not a high level athlete, but.
Speaker 2: You've been around the sport. There you you're a true
I got the score of the sport, so you understand that,
like the amount of mental focus that takes regardless of
who's across from you, you know, And so it's just
to block out all the noise and focus on one
flight at a time. I'm sure you've been around boxing
long enough. This ain't the first card where they put
one guy's the main event, guys the comaine and the winner.
You know, they get to face each other.
Speaker 1: But we know that this fight with you and Charloe
has been festering for a while. You guys have both
called each other out. I mean, you're going to be
around each other in the Mandolai Bay during the fight
week Uh, you know how much? Again, I know you
got to take care of your business, but you're also
a professional, and I know that you're able to focus,
so you're capable of talking about two things at once.
How much do you want that fight though? Uh? You
know down down the road this year. I mean, I
know you've wanted it for a while.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's I wanted enough that you know, I'm
looking for the biggest tests and Mangia was busy with Bruno,
Canelo was busy with skull Egar Berlinga is part of
the witness protection program. When it comes to me, I
guess and you know, I've been begging, begging for that fight,
asking for that fight, and not much interest in it.
So this was like the fastest way for me to
get to a big fight that I want. But Charlo
needed a fight to get busy, get active, and so
I wanted enough to say, okay, well I'll take one
of those fights too. If you got to get a
fight to stay active, then I'll stay active in the
meantime and me and you could run it later in
the year. And so this was the fastest way for
me to get to one of those big fights and
so I wanted enough to do what I'm doing now.
Speaker 1: Now you mentioned that in your last fight, you did
the fight against Trevor McCombe that took place not that
long ago. Uh, and you know you you you scored
a good knockout against him, you won the interim belt,
and I just and that's you're even to offend that
belt against his I'm always interested to know the perspective
of the fighters. You've had a real world title, You've
been in a huge fight for the undisputed title, even
if they didn't go your way. What does the intern
don't mean to you? Because a lot of people sort
of like, you know, it's a means to an end
to maybe get a real world title shot. Other guys
maybe it's a big deal for them. Tell me you're
for me.
Speaker 2: It's just a means to get to a world title.
And you know, I feel like I've paid a lot
of dues in boxing, and I've always been one of
the first to raise my hand to step on the
front line against whoever. And so with the opportunity to
become interim champion, knowing that I could either fight to
become regular champion or you know, worst case scenario, might
get elevated to regular and then be a mandatory for
the supertitle again, whether that's Canelo or whether he vacates
it or retires and I fight someone else for it.
So it just puts me a step closer to having
becoming either a two time world champ by being elevated
to regular or really you know, becoming a super CHAMPI again,
you know, me being in the position I'm men so
the intern built you know, obviously I'm grateful to have
another strap, but it's all about getting world titles, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, Dad and Knello. Obviously he's the un disputed champion.
He just regained that status recently with his uh win
against William Skull. Not the most crowd pleasing fight he'll
you know, he got stripped to the IBF title he
wanted back. I wonder if you paid attention to that.
You now actually as the interim champion, you are in
a position to be potentially his mandatory again. I know,
I have to believe you'd want that rematch eventually. Who
knows if he'd want to do it, but it doesn't
really seem to me. You tell me if you agree
that Canel frankly hasn't really looked the same since. I
think he may have reached his peak of his career
against you, and ever since then, it's you know, he's
been winning. He lost to be a little but in
super middleweight way class he's won, but nothing spectacular in
those performances. What's your take on where he's at as
the champ of the division.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean some of those fights, some of those
fights may be not the best stylistic matchups. I kind
of figured what happened with the skull fight was going
to happen because he's a Cuban and I've seen how
he fights before, and you know, I've heard Canello say like,
I don't really like facing guys who move a lot.
I don't know, I've seen him wear a knee brace.
I don't know if it's knee problems or obviously he's
getting known up there in his career as well, and
he's made a lot of money, and maybe he's only
at a certain gear you know, he's only able to
push to a certain gear right now. I'm not sure,
But either way, I feel like he was at a
speak when we fought, uh, you know, for undisputed and
you know, that was a big accomplishment by him, and
obviously I was disappointed, but I got right back to
the drawing board and you know, took that experience with
me and I didn't want to come back in just
any fight. I wanted to show the world like I
belong here. So that's why I wanted to fight, you know,
two time world champ Anthony Darrell and I put it
on a great showing and I've been able to take
all the experience from these big fights into the next one.
Speaker 1: So uh.
Speaker 2: But yeah, as far as Canelo, I feel like maybe
just a bad stylistic matchup. I feel like him and
Terrence will be a much more back and forth, exciting fight. Yeah,
the styles match up better.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent agree with you about that. You mentioned earlier,
By the way, Caleb, that you know you and Jordan
and your wife have a child on the way, a
son coming. I know you have a young daughter. Uh.
I see your social media posts and and uh and
the stuff you show off about your you and your
wife and your family, and uh, it's it's a little
bit different, I guess than when you when you're not married,
you don't have kids. Uh. And so as you go
through your career. I wonder is now having the family,
having one child having another on the way, does it
in any way change your approach to anything about boxing
with the way you do, the training camp, the how
often you want to fight, uh, your mentality going into
your motivation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well definitely as motivation, you know, just to And
I've said to another interviews, as camp, we tell our
kids what to do, but we don't always show them
first hand. And kids don't listen what we say, they
listen to what we do. And so just showing my
kids what hard work looks like firsthand. And you know,
if you have a dream, even if nobody else believes
in it, sticking to your guns, if it's in your heart,
you gotta follow it, you know. And even if you
fall short, you got to get up. That's yourself off.
That's no reason to quit. It's a reason to you know,
get back to work and smooth the edges of your
game and come back stronger. And I want them to
be able to see firsthand through my life outside of boxing,
which I feel like I've shown and also in boxing,
that it's important to put your best foot forward. And
you know, if you like I said, if it's in
your heart, you gotta follow it.
Speaker 1: And so motivation.
Speaker 2: With that, and then as far as my approach, I
feel like I'm really what's the word diligent in my
training year round strength and conditioning, running, physical therapy, massage therapy.
I got a nutritionist, team, I got a sports psychologist,
I have, you know, I really try to leave no
stone unturned and but I've done that long before Charlie
got here and stuff like that. So and then as
far as with Jordan being pregnant, I stay out in
the casita, so I'm not really bothered with much or
bothered with anything. And Jordan's a great team player, and
she's a collegiate or what was a collegiate athlete herself,
so she understands the discipline and the sacrifice it takes.
And she doesn't really do anything but make it easier
on me to where all after is focused on my boxing.
So I'm a lucky man for that.
Speaker 1: I would say, sounds like a great setup. But Caleb,
I appreciate your time today. I wish you the best
of buck and if everything works out for you when
for Charlotte can't wait to see you guys do it.
Up later this year. Moment oh yeah, no doubt