It’s a long way from the ProBox TV Events Center to T-Mobile Arena – and not just in the sense that Las Vegas is 2,500 miles from Plant City, Florida.
But eight months after outpointing Christopher Pearson over 10 rounds in front of several hundred fans on a Wednesday evening in the Sunshine State, undefeated super middleweight Trevor McCumby will be on pay-per-view in Sin City, taking on former world titlist Caleb Plant on the undercard of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s defense of his super middleweight championship against Edgar Berlanga.
If you haven’t heard of McCumby (28-0, 21 KOs), a 31-year-old from Glendale, Arizona by way of Yorkville, Illinois, that may be at least in part due to the fact that in 2018, with a burgeoning career and a record of 25-0, he walked away from the sport.
“For about two years, I just wasn’t really in the right headspace for boxing,” he explained to BoxingScene at the MGM Grand on Thursday. “I went and got a job, and I just was really focusing on myself, and I had to really just kind of grow as a man.”
Asked whether any particular incident had prompted his spell of looking inward, McCumby volunteers only that “I had demons to conquer and maybe some childhood trauma to deal with. I needed to figure out my life and become the man I know God made me to be.”
After a couple of years, however, he was ready to begin trying boxing again. He started training in Las Vegas and sparring, as he puts it, “high-level guys” when he tore his ACL in the ring.
“I went to slip a right hand, pivoted with my foot and it went crack,” he said. “The whole gym heard it.”
The self-described boxer-puncher was finally able to return to the ring in 2023. McCumby had two fights that year, followed by his January win over Pearson, and since then he has “been staying in the gym, back and forth.”
He has continued training in Las Vegas – which has, he says, been hard on his family, who live in Arizona – but “I’ve been keeping ready, staying in shape, waiting for an opportunity.”
That opportunity has arrived in the shape of a matchup with Plant – who, in typical Plant fashion, has taken vocal offense at almost everything McCumby and team have said and done. The man from Tennessee has, not unreasonably, been particularly irritated during fight week by McCumby’s brother yelling at him and calling him a “bum” during every public event. McCumby himself admits that Plant is no such thing – and indeed, he is by far the most accomplished name McCumby has yet faced.
Plant has shared the ring with the likes of Canelo and David Benavidez; the biggest name on McCumby’s record is arguably Donovan George. And his TKO1 victory over George in 2016 was expunged and changed to a no-contest when PEDs were found in his system.
McCumby professes to be mildly taken aback by the level of Plant’s invective.
“I haven’t had this much trash talk [before], and it really hasn’t been that crazy,” he said. “But yeah, it is a lot different. But I feel like everybody’s handling it well.”
Every boxer has a different way of putting themself in the right mindset for a fight; Plant, McCumby figures, just needs to turn every opponent into a personal enemy. That isn’t, says McCumby, his own style.
“For me, I look at it as a sport,” he said. “Obviously, I have to look at my opponent as, you know, ‘I’m gonna mess you up.’ But, yeah, at the end of the day, it’s a sport.”
Saturday will prove just how good McCumby is, and whether the leap from Plant City to Las Vegas is too much to make in one bound. In the meantime, he says, he’s making the most of the experience, including the demands of fight week.
“You have to really enjoy being here, because this is your job,” he said. “And if you’re not really enjoying being here, then what are you really doing this for? I’m really happy to be here, happy for all the exposure. I think it’s going to be a great, great night. I’m very excited.”
Kieran Mulvaney has written, broadcast and podcasted about boxing for HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Reuters, among other outlets. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, has written several books on the Arctic and Antarctic, and is at his happiest hanging out with wild polar bears. His website is www.kieranmulvaney.com.
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