Caleb Plant on homecoming fight pressure: “If there is, I don’t feel it!”
IBF super middleweight champion Caleb “Sweethands” Plant (19-0, 11KOs) will be making the second defense of his title when he takes on the hard-hitting mandatory, Vincent Feigenbutz (31-2, 28KOs) February 15 in his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee.
As most know, there’s an enormous amount of pressure added when you’re fighting in your backyard, especially as a champion. We’ve seen recently two former champions crumble under that hometown pressure. First, there’s former unified junior middleweight champion Julian “J-Rock” Williams who was stopped in five rounds by Jesion Rosario (20-1-1, 14KOs) on January 18.
This ironically coming in Williams’ very next fight after he dominated former unified champion Jarrett Hurd in his hometown back in May of 2019!
However, if you’re expecting Plant to be apprehensive about returning home to do battle, you’re very mistaken. Speaking to fighthype.com, Plant discussed his homecoming bout pressure.
“If there’s any, I don’t feel it because I pushed to fight at home. I wanted to fight at home and now I have that. So there’s no reason for me to keep focusing on it, worrying about that or thinking about that now that I have it.
“So now I just have to treat it like another fight, at another venue and another city.”
Plant will head into this fight as the overwhelming favorite to retain his title. Still, there’s plenty of examples throughout the history of boxing to show you that on any given night, any fighter can be beaten.
Will Caleb Plant avoid disaster or will he be added to a list of champions upset in front of their hometown? We’ll find out on February 15.
By: Jerrell Fletcher
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