Thomas LaManna likely thought himself justified in interjecting when a media member asked Caleb Plant if the plan was for him and Jermall Charlo to fight if each won their bouts on May 31.

“We’re not doing that!” LaManna announced, repeating it four times in all in a cadence vaguely reminiscent of a police car siren. His point was clear and fair – maybe don’t look ahead to a bout yet to be made when the opponent of one of its participants is still on the call. Unfortunately for him, the man he talked over was named Caleb Plant.

Plant’s brand of psychological warfare is an established art by now. He is unfailingly calm as his fellow boxers, opponents or no, disrespect him. And every time, he either picks apart their argument with cold logic or finds a phrase that infuriates them.

In the case of LaManna, Plant, 23-2 (14 KOs), chose the former. “Hey, Thomas, you had your time to talk,” he said. “That question wasn’t for you, it was for me. Me and you are cool; we’ve never had any issues. But I’m gonna ask you, respectfully, to shut the fuck up.”

Confronted with an irrefutable argument, LaManna agreed on the spot, repeating “facts” and acknowledging “you’re 100 per cent right.” But he couldn’t stop himself from talking further, opening himself up to further embarrassment.

“You gotta fight your mans, I gotta fight [Charlo],” LaManna said. “It’s a disrespect to me as well, you understand me? I have no intent to do that.”

Plant tried gamely to answer the question, only for LaManna to tell him to watch his mouth. The irony was, Plant didn’t even disagree with LaManna’s point.

“Look, man,” Plant sighed. “Ain’t nobody talking to you right now. The plan is, if I win, or when I win, and if Charlo is able to win, then the plan is for me and him to fight. I don’t give a fuck what you and Jermall got going on. You guys can figure that out when the bell rings. That ain’t for me to figure out.

“But the plan is, when I step on Armando [Resendiz, Plant’s May 31 opponent] – because I’m gonna step on him – and if Charlo wins, then we’re gonna fight.”

Met with silence (the moderators had muted LaManna by this point), Plant pressed his advantage. “Am I right or am I wrong? Thomas, since you got so much to say?”

“Nah, you right,” LaManna said.

“They were asking what the plan is, not what’s gonna happen, not what’s gonna go through,” Plant said, as if explaining the difference between two homophones to a class of fifth-graders. “So pipe down, motherfucker.”

“A’ight, that’s a bet,” said LaManna, before attempting to interject once more. This time the moderators shut him down for good.

One might think that Plant’s debating skills would be dulled in a promotion for a fight against an opponent like Resendiz, who is not a native English speaker and therefore more difficult to provoke through the delay of a translator. Let the record show that this is untrue: Plant will just set his sights on another fighter on the card.

Plant also dissected a rather bizarre question asking if he found himself on the canvas – as he did in his last fight against Trevor McCumby – whether he might struggle more to get up given that the 26-year-old Resendiz, 15-2 (11 KOs), is a “young lion.” Plant pointed out that he went down from a punch to the arm that knocked him off-balance, so he didn’t struggle to get up at all, and went on to stop McCumby.

For his part, Resendiz, who has yet to fight an opponent as proven as Plant or fight over a scheduled 12 rounds (as this bout is) was reserved. Plant had hard words for him, too, referring to an old sparring session in which, as Plant tells it, he wobbled Resendiz’s legs by landing an overhand right.

And not to worry: Plant came up with ways to break through the language barrier to trash-talk Resendiz, too. He speculated that he might land the same big shot from their sparring session in the fight to come, and mimed taking a nap. Resendiz understood what he meant, and smiled.

Owen Lewis is a former intern at Defector media and writes and edits for BoxingScene. His beats are tennis, boxing, books, travel and anything else that satisfies his meager attention span. He is on Bluesky.