The DAZN Boxing Show discussed Caleb Plant’s ability to get under the skin of his opponents.
Plant fights David Benavidez - the current WBC interim super middleweight champion - on Saturday night as he attempts to get back to the top of the 168lbs division.
Plant was one of the fighters to lose his belt to Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez as the Mexican accumulated all four of the major belts in the division to become undisputed.
Benavidez meanwhile is a two-time champion who remains undefeated but has lost his belt due to a positive test for cocaine, and also for failing to make weight, a perennial problem for the fighter.
In the build-up to the fight, Plant has referenced the controversy over cocaine and Barak Bess recognised that he may be attempting to undermine his opponent with mind games, just as he had tried with Canelo, before losing.
Barak said: When you brought up Canelo, Caleb Plant is that guy. He goes low. If you’re going to go at him, I think he can be super respectful, but if you say something about him, he’s going to go as low as he can.
“When it was Canelo it was talking about failing a drugs test even though in a lot of people’s eyes he was exonerated because of the hair follicle test.
“But he still brought it up and then he’s bringing up cocaine in David Benavidez’s blood and that hurts, especially when you’re David, and you're 20 years old.
“So yes, Caleb is one of those guys, you knock them out and ‘do the gravedigger’. We didn’t know he’s a champion troller. He’s bringing that confidence inside the ring. We’re seeing something different.”
Ak believes that Plant poses the toughest test of Benavidez’s career.
He explained: “The confidence that Plant has developed from sharing a ring with Canelo and having great moments in that fight, even though he lost, [and] the knockout against Dirrell.
“He’s been in a big fight, it does something to you psychologically.
“Benavidez, it’s safe to say he hasn’t been in a fight of that magnitude, he’s about to be in a fight. Plant has a little more experience with those levels of fights. Benavidez, we’ve never seen him that ripped and shredded before. He’s training like it’s the most difficult fight of his career. There’s a lot to prove.”