By: Hans Themistode
If you sat down with Anthony Dirrell and had a candid conversation with him about Caleb Plant, the former super middleweight belt holder’s face will screw up in disgust.
The 37-year-old has never kept his feelings about the Nashville, Tennessee native a secret. In fact, a few days prior to Plant stepping into the ring against Canelo Alvarez, Dirrell couldn’t hold his tongue anymore as he ripped into him.
“How he acts is unreasonable,” said Dirrell to a group of reporters. “It just doesn’t sit well with me. He’s an asshole.”
In addition to Dirrell despising Plant for his overall personality, he heavily chastised him for the level of opposition he’s faced since winning his world title against Jose Uzcategui in 2019.
“He fought bums after he got the belt, period.”
Although Dirrell has expressed his deep disdain for Plant over and over again, the 29-year-old ignored him as he had his eyes set on history. On November 6th, earlier this year at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, Plant attempted to become the first undisputed super middleweight champion of all time. The one-man standing between Plant and what he believed was his destiny, was pound for pound star Canelo Alvarez.
While Plant was considered a sizable underdog heading in, he ignored the betting market and fought Alvarez on mostly even terms. Nevertheless, despite Plant’s will to win, Alvarez proved to be a cut above, stopping the slick hitting southpaw in the 11th round.
As the rivalry between Plant and Alvarez has now officially come to a close, the former IBF super middleweight titlist has turned his attention towards Dirrell. Heading into his showdown against Alvarez, Plant did his best to ignore the critiques of his fellow former titlist. However, while he mostly kept quiet, he heard Dirrell’s words loud and clear.
“It seems like he’s had a lot to say about me,” said Plant during an interview with FightHype.com. “If he don’t like me, he should do something about it.”
Ironically enough, Dirrell was last seen in the ring on the same night as Plant. The rough and rugged contender registered a fourth-round stoppage victory in the co-main event of Plant vs. Alvarez against Marcos Hernandez. Following the win, Dirrell audaciously called for a showdown against Alvarez.
In spite of his callouts, Plant is convinced that he hasn’t done enough to warrant a shot at the pound-for-pound star. If, however, Dirrell wants to prove himself worthy of a matchup against Alvarez, Plant believes a showdown against himself makes all the sense in the world.
“He feels like he deserves the Canelo fight but his last two fights he’s fought middleweights, one of them he had a draw against,” continued Plant. “He made out good this last fight but everyone knows how good of a fight I put up against Canelo. They know how well I did. If he wants to prove he’s worthy of that fight then beat me.”