Caleb Plant: ‘If I ask someone to leave me alone, it’s not a request, it’s a demand’, P4
- Shidonna Raven
- Aug 5
- 3 min read
BY TRIS DIXON
This Article has been curated by UDBN
May 26, 2025
Source: Boxing Scene
NO PLAN B
Caleb Plant – a former IBF super middleweight champion – still has a dream. He wants to hold a world title overhead again, carry it in a locked case as luggage when he travels and show the belts to his kids when he’s an old man. It is as much a dream now as it was when he was a child.
How many left hooks did he throw in the mirror of that “rinky-dink gym?” How many shots has he taken? How many times has he tasted his own blood, or woken to run while the world sleeps, and put his courage to the test to achieve the dream?
Regardless of the specifics, the dream for Plant is the destination and the purpose of his colorful and emotional journey is a title.
“Ever since I was nine years old, that’s really all I wanted to be,” he says, a glint in his eye. “[It’s] what I wanted to do. And my dad will tell you that that’s God's honest truth. I knew since I was nine years old, like, ‘Man, this is what it’s going to be for me.’”
But the chances of making it to the top – and staying there – in this rocky business are slender. It’s not a question of slipping punches, but rolling with them outside of the sport, too. The likelihood of success is small, but Plant felt the odds were in his favor.
“I always knew I was going to be the one, even in middle school. My teacher came around once, I wasn't doing my work. I was filling out my autograph on a piece of paper. I filled up the whole sheet, turned it over, and I filled up the whole sheet with my autograph on the front and back. My teacher would come around and say, ‘What are you doing?’ I was like, ‘I’m practicing my autograph. I’m going to be a world champion one day.’ She’s like, ‘Well, what if boxing don’t work out? You need to plan B.’ I said, ‘No, boxing is going to work out. I don't need to plan B. I’m going to be a world champion.’”
He won the national Golden Gloves in 2011, an Olympic alternate in London in 2012, and fought in Nashville at the Bridgestone Arena in 2020 to defend his world title, and that same teacher updated her status on social media, telling the story of the stubborn kid who knew he was going to be a champion.
“I told him he needed to plan B,” she wrote. “And he told me, ‘No, I don’t. Boxing is going to work.’ And sure enough, if he didn’t go out there and become a world champion.” break
“And I just fell in love with that.”
He played little league football too, and was good, but he liked fighting more. He’d started football at seven, but before his freshman year his dad urged him to make a choice.
With school about to start, Richie said to Caleb: “’Hey buddy, you need to pick one. I know you’ve been playing football a long time. I know you love it.
“I know you’ve been fighting a long time. But you know, high school ball is going to be very demanding.
“Obviously fighting is very demanding too. So you can’t be great at everything. You need to pick one.’”
Caleb admits school was not for him. He didn’t like it and wasn’t good at it.
“I come from a small town,” he says. “There weren’t like a lot of big recruits [for football]. And I was like, ‘Man, I just want to box. I just want to fight.’”
At what point did Plant realize boxing was his ticket to a better life?
“Nine years old, nine years old,” he sighs. “That’s why I want to be a world champion.
“All I want to do is fight.”
We Got that FAN-Appeal | Undisputed Boxing News
Marcus Doggett, Chief Editor
Comments