Caleb Plant: Unlike Mike Lee, I have everything to lose

As IBF super middleweight titleholder Caleb Plant (18-0, 10 KOs) gets set to make his first title defense against Mike Lee (21-0, 11 KOs) on July 20th at the MGM Grand, Plant tells Lee that he’s in for something that he’s not mentally prepared to endure.

From RingTV:

“Mike Lee may have a financial degree, but in boxing, I have a Ph.D and that’s something you don’t know anything about,” Plant said at the podium, turning his head and glancing down at his future opponent. “Something else I have a Ph.D in is being cold, being hungry and being deprived — that’s something you don’t know anything about.

“Coming from very rock bottom — that’s something you don’t know anything about. Coming from ‘No Man’s Land,’ where nobody makes it out — that’s something you don’t know anything about.”

Plant, 26, would continue by saying that if Lee believes for one second that he’s going to mess up this opportunity, now being a world champion, that Lee must not be as educated as he thinks. The titleholder also says that personal tragedies can be used as fuel for greatness, and if that’s indeed the case that he’ll certainly be running on full for the rest of his life. Plant has already endured the unimaginable loss of his 1-year-old daughter back in 2015, and just recently had his mother killed in a police shooting a few months back.

So for Plant this is more than just a boxing contest, he sees it as a means of survival for those he still holds dear, not to mention as a dedication to those he’s lost. “Because unlike [Mike Lee]...I have everything to lose.”