By Craig Daly: Caleb ‘Sweethands’ Plant is vowing to send former two-time WBA 168-lb champion Anthony Dirrell into retirement on October 15th. This is an important fight for Plant because he’s got a lot of doubters after his last fight.

Plant (21-1, 12 KOs) is hoping to bounce back from his 11th round knockout loss to Canelo Alvarez last November. The way that Plant was talking to Canelo during the ninth round, asking to be validated, looked bad.

Plant appeared insecure while, at the same time, he gave the impression that he was hoping that Canelo would take it easy on him after he’d gassed out. Canelo didn’t. If anything, he turned it up a gear and began to really punish Plant until stopping him in the eleventh.

He’s picked an older fighter in 37-year-old Dirrell (33-2, 24 KOs) in trying to get back on the winning track. Plant could have chosen David Benavidez or Jermall Charlo for his bounce-back fight but opted to fight Dirrell.

It’s not certain that Plant, 29, wins this fight because Dirrell has a lot of pop in his punches, and he’s got better stamina and chin. Moreover, Dirrell is the more experienced of the two, mixing it with the best.

Dirrell’s performance against David Benavidez three years ago was superior to how Plant looked in his loss to Canelo.

“He can feel how he wants, but he’s not going to do anything on fight night,” said Plant in today’s press conference. “He says he’s ‘The Dog,’ but he does a lot of woofing.

“He woofs a whole lot because he’s a puppy dog, but he doesn’t follow through. He’s trying to hype himself up,” said Plant.

There’s a lot of bad blood between Plant and Dirrell from the build-up to this fight. It will be interesting to see which of the two has their hand raised on October 15th.

“I’m going to put a vicious whooping on him on October 15,” said Plant. “I’m going to teach him a life lesson when we get into the ring.

“He’s retiring after this,” said Plant. “He’s done. I’m going to beat him in such a way that he won’t want to be a part of this anymore.

“Whether that’s stopping him, or putting a whooping on him for 12 rounds, regardless, I’m going to have my hand raised,” said Plant.