'It didn't break me': How Caleb Plant turned a life of immense hardship into 'a badge of honor'

Yahoo

4 days ago

LAS VEGAS — It's the early 2000s and Caleb Plant is just a boy. He gets food from social services and witnesses foreclosure papers from a young age. He frequently moves from trailer to trailer, never knowing stability. He saves up money from school, 'a dollar here and there,' so that he can get himself, and his sister Madeline, something that will provide greater sustenance than the canned goods donated to the Bethesda Center in Ashland City, Tennessee.
He is only 9 years old and he's already seen hardship that other kids with PlayStations and Xbox consoles won't be able to relate to. 'There are some families that are more middle class, some who are below middle class … and we were below that,' Plant tells Uncrowned ahead of his return to the ring.
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On Saturday, Plant fights Jose Armando Resendiz atop a Premier Boxing Champions on Prime Video PPV card at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas. It's not the first time his name has decorated billboards across the famed Las Vegas Boulevard, more commonly referred to as the Strip. Plant is a staple in the fight capital of the world. He's married, has a growing family, and invests in the NFL, real estate, and stocks. He drives a '72 Chevelle and an Impala. He has a ridiculous sneaker collection. It's a far cry from his past, when he struggled through life in Ashland City.
When Plant was in class, he'd doodle over pieces of paper, rather than focus on his studies. 'Why ain't you doing your work?' One teacher asked a 9-year-old Caleb. 'What are you doing?'
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'I'm practicing my autograph,' he said.
'For what?'
'I'm going to be a world champion one day.'
'Well,' the teacher said, 'You need a Plan B. What if that don't work out?'
Plant played football, and loved it. He excelled in sports. But as soon as he started boxing, he didn't want to do anything else. 'There's honor in all work,' he says, but as he has ADHD, he knew he'd never be able to sit at a desk for an office job, nor stand for an extended period of time packing groceries. He knew he was born to fight.
'I don't need a Plan B,' he told the teacher. 'It's going to work.'
Almost 20 years later, Plant — by this time an American success story — had already won the IBF super middleweight championship, and brought a pro fight to his home state for the first time in his career in 2020. He outclassed Vincent Feigenbutz from the opening bell, and forced a referee's stoppage in the 10th round at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
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That teacher, the one who told him he'd need a Plan B, attended.
'Damn, if he didn't go out and do it,' she said.
Caleb Plant poses with his IBF championship belt after defeating Vincent Feigenbutz at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. ()
(Brett Carlsen via Getty Images)
Nothing ever came easy for Plant.
Even after leaving Ashland City at age 21, and moving to West Nashville, hardship continued to follow his life. His 19-month-old daughter, Alia, passed away in her mother's arms in 2015. She had seizures since birth. 'Shortly after that, her mom left,' Plant says. He then lost his apartment. 'Things were going downhill for me.'
Plant, a 5-0 pro at the time, told Alia before she died that he'd become a world champion. But he knew he still needed to get his life together. 'I was making money through boxing, and other ways, and I felt my career was taking off,' he says. 'I didn't want to jeopardize that. So I stopped making money from other ways, and moved to my friend's house. It was right down the street from the gym. I can't let this opportunity slip.'
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It's sometimes 'a little heavy' for Plant to look back at his earlier life.
'If my life was one big f***-up, then that s*** would be a lot heavier as it would be one more thing added to the list,' he says.
'But I went out and made it happen."
'I made it through that. It didn't break me. I could have folded, quit, stayed in a futon inside an abandoned office building, not having a lot of food. Being in the trailer, being the kid in the middle of nowhere, nobody boxed there, and so nobody thought I'd make it. I pulled up to national tournaments and nobody thought I'd be here.
'I did my thing.'
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It's 'a badge of honor' that he's taken into his high-profile fights, regardless of whether it's a marquee match against Saul "Canelo" Alvarez in 2021, which he lost, his comeback knockout win over Anthony Dirrell the following year, or subsequent showdowns against David Benavidez and Trevor McCumby.
It's a badge of honor he'll take into the Resendiz fight, too.
Caleb Plant is never one to back down. (Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports)
(USA TODAY Sports / Reuters)
Plant's story is as relevant in 2025 as it was when he first told it.
The United States' tariffs were ever-present in the news on the same day Uncrowned spoke to the fighter. 'The higher tariffs will result in higher prices' for consumers, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a recent earnings call to investors. MSNBC reported that the price increases hurt low-income Americans in rural areas the most. The Budget Lab of Yale shows the tariffs disproportionately affects 'clothing and textiles, with apparel prices rising 17%.' Rents are also rising in numerous markets, per CBS .
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'Poor is poor, regardless of what year you're in,' Plant says. 'It's not an easy thing. It's stressful.'
The fighter has a message for anyone experiencing hardship in 2025, like he did from birth in 1992 through to the mid-2000s.
'You can chase money all day long and it'll keep running and running [away]," he says. "Maybe you just keep skating by. The real secret to being successful is creating a skill. Becoming good at something. And it needs to be something you love. Because eventually it'll get hard, something will get in the way. It's raining, your car is messed up. And so if you don't love it, you'll end up quitting. Because it's too hard. So you have to find something you love.
Being in the trailer, being the kid in the middle of nowhere, nobody boxed there, and so nobody thought I'd make it. I pulled up to national tournaments and nobody thought I'd be here. Caleb Plant
'And you gotta keep cultivating that skill until you're really good at it. Then the money will come to you. 'Oh man, we need you for your skill. We'll pay you this.' You build your reputation and move up the ladder. That's only the way to beat that. 'I'm going to work this job, get a second job, a third job.' You're just going to run yourself into the ground.
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'You gotta create skill, and create a way to let people know you have that skill so the money comes to you.'
Hardship no longer follows Plant as severely as it once did. He wants to handle his business on May 31, 'and keep moving forward after that.'
'If everything works out like it's supposed to," he says, "we have a big fight at the end of the year.'
That big fight may well be against Jermall Charlo, who co-features in the end-of-the-month show alongside Plant, against Thomas LaManna.
Should that fight come together, then few should bet against Plant because, damn, just ask his school teacher. He may well just go out and do it again.