Caleb Plant vs. Caleb Truax is starting to get personal for Plant

Caleb Plant vs. Caleb Truax started off somewhat respectful, but some old tweets have added fuel to the fire of this IBF super middleweight fight. 

IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant and challenger Caleb Truax were fairly reserved during their first press conference, but the tone shifted in the final media conference.

Plant (20-0, 12 KOs) has reigned as the IBF champion for the last two years. He’s notched two successful title defenses and is highly favored to defeat former IBF champ Truax (31-4-2, 19 KOs), when they meet on Saturday, Jan. 30. According to Oddsshark.com, oddsmakers have Truax as far as a 27-1 underdog. During the press conference on Jan. 21, Plant showed respect towards Truax’s abilities and dismissed the lopsided odds as not an accurate measure of a boxer’s abilities.

“Me against Jose Uzcategui, they had me the underdog, and they had it wrong,” said Plant at the time. “So I don’t pay attention to numbers, betting odds—that’s not how I became a world champion and how I’m going to stay world champion. My job is to go in there fully focused on the task at hand.”

Since then, Plant discovered some old tweets from Truax that talked about him negatively five years prior. One read, “1 round, and I already hope Caleb Plant gets knocked out.”

The other tweet was a challenge to Plant before his 2018 bout against Rogelio Medina. Plant went on to beat Medina by unanimous decision. Plant tweeted out screenshots of Truax’s old tweets with the message, “Knew our paths would cross @GoldenCalebT don’t you know I keep receipts. Don’t wish for someone else to YOU DO IT!”

During their final media conference on Jan. 28, host Ray Flores asked Plant about Truax’s past tweets.

Caleb Plant flashed some fire towards Caleb Truax during their final press conference

“It’s something that’s definitely been a motivating factor,” admitted Plant. “With only 11 fights, wherever he was in his career, whatever he was doing, for him to hope that I get knocked out, or only room enough for one Caleb or whatever silly s**t he was saying, instead of wishing for somebody else to knock me out, why don’t you step up and do it?”

In one week, Plant has taken on a new edge towards Truax. Truax explained that his comments stemmed from his distaste at how he thought Plant was “showing up” a lower caliber fighter.

Plant questioned Truax’s logic and added some personal attacks of his own.

“I’m supposed to let it be closer than that like some of your fights?” retorted Plant. “I’m just supposed to get in there and be boring and not have any wow factor? Just because you can’t do those things, just because you’ve never done any of those things to any level of opponent that you’ve ever fought.”

Plant and Truax went back and forth with verbal jabs before media members got to ask questions. Plant vowed that he would show Truax up. He also made a bit of a fight night prediction.

“It’s going to be a dominant performance, and he’s getting stopped,” declared Plant. “So either his team can throw in the towel, or I will throw in the towel for him, or the ref can step in and do his job.

Most of the strong words came from Plant. He stated that Truax isn’t his toughest opponent. That honor belongs to Jose Uzcategui, according to Plant. Plant previously stated that he would knock out Truax, and he elaborated on that during the final media conference.

“I just feel again like I’m better in all aspects of the game,” said Plant while talking to FanSided during the media call. “I’ve been doing this for a really long time at a high level. I don’t feel like what he presents or brings to the table can stop what I bring to the table.”

It’s hard to imagine a scenario where Truax is victorious over Plant. Plant is nine years younger than Truax and is undefeated. A one-sided knockout loss could spell the end of Truax’s career, but he’s not thinking about that possibility.

“I don’t ever think about that,” Truax told FanSided. “I approach every fight individually. I realize that I’m 37, and it would take a long time for me to get back into title contention if things don’t go my way, but I don’t approach anything with the mindset that like this is going to be my last fight. I think when a fighter does that, they’ve already kind of conceded that they’re done.”

Watch Caleb Plant vs. Caleb Truax battle in an IBF super middleweight title fight on Saturday, Jan. 30. Main event coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET on FOX and FOX Deportes.