Caleb Plant has broken his silence about why he smacked Jermall Charlo backstage at the Terence Crawford-Errol Spence Jr. weigh-in at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on July 28.
The notorious viral footage shows Plant walking up to Charlo and clocking the WBC middleweight champion across the jaw with a left hand. Spence even posted on his X account saying: "Caleb & Jermall promoting the #SpenceCrawford fight tomorrow in their own way .."
Well, in an Instagram Live post Monday, Plant, a former IBF super middleweight champion, explained that his reaction was triggered by Charlo insulting him and yanking on his beard despite warnings to stop.
“A man has got a right to defend himself,” Plant started explaining about the incident. “A grown man touch another grown man in his face, pulling on his beard real hard. I’ve got the decency to tell you not to do that again and I don’t spazz on you right there.
“I got enough decency to tell you not to do that again,” he continued. “And, you know, the only thing you can reply is how ‘I’m a b—h-ass white boy.’
"‘And look at him ya’ll, getting all shook like a b—h ass white boy would. … acting like a b—h.’ And then, you know, you immediately grab my face again even harder, after I just asked you not to do that no more."
He added: “I got my wife standing right behind me and I’m in a room full of my peers. I mean, what do you do? You’re making it real hard on a guy. You’re really putting his back to the wall, when you start doing all that s—t, you know, in front of my wife and everybody in the room. I done asked you to quit f—ing with me.”
Plant added that he would have rather got stomped out by Charlo’s crew than to have to look in the mirror and live with himself after taking that kind of disrespect — thus prompting his decision to smack Charlo, before security broke it up.
"He kept touching me in my face," Plant recounted for final record. "And I told him knock that s—t off, but he wouldn’t listen.
“I’m trying to be left the f—k alone, I know that.”
Plant (22-2, 13 KOs) hasn't fought since dropping a unanimous decision to David Benavidez in March.
Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) hasn't fought since producing a unanimous decision over Juan Macias Montiel way back in June 2021.