Caleb Plant doesn’t quite understand any of it.
Before any big boxing matchup, trash talk and various barbs traded from both fighters is seemingly routine to garner attention and build anticipation.
Usually, it’s accepted as part of the necessary promotion and not taken too seriously.
Except when Plant is involved, it always seems to be different.
Beyond normal pre-fight back-and-forth, there always seems to be vitriol between Plant and his opponent that becomes personal.
“I can’t tell you why they feel the way they feel about me,” Plant told The Post. “But obviously, when they think that they’re good, when they think they’re better than me, it’s cool. But then when I think I’m better than them, for some reason, they feel different about it. I don’t know.
“They just think I’m supposed to show up and just be excited to be a part of it, and just be quiet and get handed whatever I get handed. That’s just not how it works.”
The 30-year-old Plant dispatched Anthony Dirrell via ninth-round KO to improve to 22-1 at Barclays Center in his most recent bout in October, but not before Dirrell attacked Plant’s character and personality in the lead up.
Dirrell on multiple occasions said he’s long “hated” Plant and that the rest of the fighters in the super middleweight division despise him personally.
Before that, Plant and the division’s undisputed champion Canelo Alvarez traded punches during one of their pre-fight press conferences, causing a laceration under Plant’s eye.
Alvarez won via 11th-round TKO to win the undisputed super middleweight title and take Plant’s IBF title belt away from him.
Alvarez claimed he “never had as much bad blood” with any other foe.
Plant now faces the heavily-lauded David Benavidez (26-0) in a long-awaited and high stakes 12-round super middleweight bout as the main event on Showtime’s PPV card Saturday night (9 p.m. ET) from MGM Grand Garden Arena.
In a rivalry that’s been building for years, Plant perhaps shares more animosity with Benavidez than he has with any other opponent.
Benavidez has long made his disdain for Plant publicly known, and it reached personal levels when Benavidez’s father, Jose Sr., commented on Plant’s late daughter Alia, who tragically passed away in 2015 at just 19-months-old.
Jose Sr. felt Plant was using Alia for attention, and stated that he should stop talking about her.
Those comments crossed the line of fair play for Plant.
Before that in 2018, Benavidez’s brother Jose Jr. (who is also a boxer) and other members of his team got into a scuffle with Plant when they confronted him at a gym.
Punches were thrown in the altercation.
“I think it just started out as agreeing to disagree about who’s better,” Plant said. “He feels like he’s the best in the division, I feel like I’m the best. He wanted to voice that, I wanted to voice that. It’s like, when he posts a picture of all of us bowing to him on his social media, it’s like that’s not out of the ordinary. But then when I say that I feel like I’m the best, then he acts like I’m trying to pretend like I’m the second coming of [Floyd] Mayweather. These are his words.
“But then when it became over the line, the point of no return for me, is when his dad started speaking about my daughter. And just making certain comments about me and her. When men go off to war, a lot of times they leave women and children at home. That’s like a point of no return for me.”
Plant and Benavidez have long had each other circled for a potential bout.
They both rose to the top of the super middleweight rankings, and the contempt for one another has only risen in anticipation of the fight.
Benavidez won his first title in 2017 – the WBC super middleweight title, and made one title defense before being stripped of his belt after testing positive for cocaine.
He later reclaimed the title in 2018 against Dirrell, but was again stripped after coming in overweight for his title defense against Roamer Alexis Angulo.
Plant chided Benavidez’s cocaine use at their introductory press conference, and the two nearly came to blows and had to be separated as a result.
Benavidez is a classic come-forward boxer while Plant likes to move around the ring more and use his shrewdness.
The pair’s heightened emotions for this bout could alter those styles.
“There’s basically two opposites going up against each other,” Benavidez told The Post. “What’s making this fight so interesting is just the bad blood. He hates me, I hate him. I’m not afraid to say it. But these are the types of fights that people want to see.
“People want to see a storyline outside of boxing. They want to see some drama.”
The timing didn’t work out previously for the pair to meet in the ring.
Plant was busy with a legacy fight against Alvarez, while Benavidez was still building his resume.
But the time is right now, as both have eyes on a crack at Alvarez and the undisputed title.
And, of course, bragging rights over a bitter rival.
“This guy is super cocky, he’s always been cocky, even from the first time I met him,” Benavidez said. “He’s always talked a lot. But the thing I’ve never liked about him, the thing I’ve never respected is that I would see him face-to-face and he wouldn’t tell me anything. And then I’d go on the internet the next day, and I’d see him doing an interview, right after he left, right after we confronted each other, he’d go do an interview and he’d talk a lot of stuff, say a lot of crap.
“I feel like if you have something to say to somebody, you say it to their face. I’ve never respected him that way, because of the stuff he does. I just don’t like the type of person he is, and I can’t wait to shut his mouth up March 25th.”
