Caleb Plant took to the podium during today’s final press conference to make sure Trevor McCumby is aware of what he’s getting himself into this weekend. Plant would make references to members of McCumby’s team heckling him during a previous presser, and says while that trash talking might sound good, McCumby knows what he’ll be up against.
“It’s taken a lot of hard work to get here, and to get back to this place,” Plant said. “So one thing I love to do and one thing I’ve done throughout my career is study the greats because being successful, it’s all about being intentional. And something I read a long time ago, it says ‘success is on top of the hill and no one walked uphill on accident.’
“One of the greats I study is Andre Ward, and it’s been a blessing for me because he’s become a good friend of mine over the years and any time I’ve needed to reach out and look for direction or get an opinion, he’s always done his best to point me in the right direction. And one thing I’ve heard ‘Dre say time and time again, ‘not all opinions are validated.’
“The other day at the grand arrivals somebody on his team, it may have been your brother, was shouting at me, calling me a bum. And that’s easy for him to say because he’s on the sidewalk. ‘Cause I guarantee you if you jumped out here in traffic, you get hit like a Mack Truck.
“So like I said, not all opinions are validated because Trevor himself knows I’m not a bum. That’s why you want to fight me, because you on the big leagues, you want to be on the big stage, and you can’t do that by fighting a bum. You do that by fighting a real fighter, and that’s what you’re looking at, a real fighter…everybody you’ve been fighting is a bum but you’re not fighting a bum now.”