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LAS VEGAS – Anthony Dirrell has trained here for the past couple of months in preparation for his fight against Marcos Hernandez on Saturday night.
While beneficial to prepare in the self-proclaimed “Fight Capital of the World,” where sparring partners are plentiful, Dirrell has grown tired of this city because he misses his family. One super middleweight with whom Dirrell didn’t spar while he was here was Caleb Plant.
Dirrell grew tired of Plant long ago, so much that the former WBC super middleweight champion claims that he “hates” Plant. Though focused on his own 10-rounder on the Plant-Canelo Alvarez undercard at MGM Grand Garden Arena, Dirrell would enjoy watching Alvarez humble the unbeaten IBF 168-pound champion in their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event ($79.99; 9 p.m. EDT).
“I hate him,” Dirrell told BoxingScene.com. “I don’t like him. And hate is such a strong word, but yeah, I really hate the guy. I’m dead serious. I just don’t like him. I think he thinks he’s the sh!t, and he’s not. He fought one guy, Uzcetagui, and beat him. And granted, he beat him; I was commentating [for FS1] for that fight. But that’s it. He’s a good boxer. He has speed, with no power. But I think he just need to come back down to reality.”
Plant (21-0, 12 KOs), of Ashland City, Tennessee, dropped Jose Uzcategui (31-4, 26 KOs) twice on his way to beating the Venezuelan veteran by unanimous decision to win the IBF super middleweight title in January 2019 at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
There hasn’t been a particular instance that caused Dirrell to so intensely dislike Plant, who will battle Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 KOs) for 168-pound supremacy. It’s simply a gut feeling Dirrell says he shares with other fighters.
“I just don’t like him,” Dirrell said. “I think a lot of people don’t like Caleb. Canelo don’t like him. [David] Benavidez don’t like him. Everybody don’t like him. I mean, is it us or is it him? You’ve gotta ask yourself that anyway, because me and Benavidez is fine. I’m fine with David. I respect Benavidez. He’s a tremendous fighter. He’s a great fighter, a great champion, and he’s not an assh-le, at the end of the day. You know, he’s a real down to earth guy.”
Dirrell developed a mutual respect with Benavidez during and after their WBC title fight, which Benavidez won by ninth-round knockout in September 2019 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
The 37-year-old Dirrell (33-2-2, 24 KOs) settled for a 12-round draw with Kyrone Davis (16-2-1, 6 KOs) in his only action since Benavidez beat him two years ago. The Flint, Michigan, native hopes a better performance against Hernandez (15-4-2, 3 KOs), of Fresno, California, on Saturday night at least would thrust him into the mix to face the Alvarez-Plant winner.
Dirrell expects the heavily favored Alvarez to beat Plant. His disdain for Plant notwithstanding, Dirrell didn’t entirely discount Plant’s chances of pulling off an upset, though.
“We don’t know,” Dirrell said. “It’s boxing. We know boxing is boxing. I’m not gonna say [Plant] have a chance. But it’s boxing. Anything can happen in boxing. That’s what everybody says. But I think Canelo has too many tools for him. But I don’t care about that fight. I care about my fight.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.