Caleb Plant returns to the ring on Sept. 14 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Plant, a former 168-pound world title-holder whose only two losses came against the top dogs in the division – Canelo Alvarez and David Benavidez – hopes to get back in the title hunt at the expense of undefeated (28-0, 21 KOs) Trevor McCumby. Plant vs. McCumby will air on Amazon Prime Video PPV with Alvarez defending his WBC and WBO straps against Edgar Berlanga in the featured bout.
From the opening bell, Plant vs. McCumby will grip the undivided attention of the former Jordan Hardy who now goes by Jordan Plant. She and Caleb will celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary on Oct. 5.
Boxing fans know Jordan Plant as the roving reporter on PBC telecasts. She also hosts shoulder programming for PBC events and has a conspicuous role in pre-fight confabs for the media. However, although she will definitely be there on Sept. 14, you won’t see her – at least not with a microphone in her hand — if you happen to tune in as she doesn’t work cards on which her husband appears.
The boxing literature is almost totally bereft of non-fiction stories where the central character is not the boxer but, rather, the special woman in his life. A rare exception is a 1949 story by the great W.C. Heinz for Cosmopolitan that would find its way into several anthologies.
Heinz shadowed the wife of Rocky Graziano on the night that Rocky fought Charley Fusari at New York’s Polo Grounds.
Mrs. Graziano, the former Norma Unger, attended her husband’s fights as he was climbing the ladder, but quickly lost her stomach for it and would wait for him outside the club. When Rocky fought Bummy Davis in a ballyhooed match at the Garden, she went to the movies.
On the night that Heinz was there, she coped with her nervousness by chain-smoking more than usual as she ironed some laundry and then by taking a walk outside, leaving the house with her mother and a friend as the bout was about to start. But she couldn’t escape the fight entirely because it was on the radio and as she walked around her New York neighborhood, a neighborhood of multi-family homes, the muffled sounds of it floated down from open windows. It seems as if everyone in the neighborhood knew her. “Rocky is winning,” some called out to her to allay her fears. (For the record, Graziano was trailing on all three cards when he knocked out Fusari in the 10th and final round.)
Looking back at the Heinz piece through the prism of history, one is struck by how little we learn about Mrs. Rocky Graziano. She was then 23 years old, had been married six years, and she and Rocky shared two young daughters, ages five and two. Beyond that she was simply a housewife, a woman seemingly without an identity apart from her husband.
Jordan Plant is a different cat in a different era. Born on July 19, 1992, she grew up in the Sacramento suburb of Roseville, California. One of four sisters, all of whom played sports (her sister Hannah was a heptathlete at Samford University in Alabama), Jordan starred on the women’s track team at her high school, earning a full ride to UNLV after a year at a NorCal junior college. Her specialty was the hurdles and her position coach at UNLV was Larry Wade. A world class hurdler on the international stage during his days as a competitor, Wade would become an in-demand strength and conditioning coach within the boxing community. He’s worked with Jordan’s husband (small world), but hasn’t been around for this camp, having accepted an offer from Jake Paul to work with him exclusively.
At UNLV, Jordan majored in broadcast journalism. She credits Sage Steele, the former host of ESPN’s flagship SportsCenter, for nudging her on to this career path.
“When I first saw Sage Steele on TV, there was a lot less diversity in sports broadcasting,” notes Jordan. “Here was a woman who looked a little like me, a woman I could identify with. I thought to myself, hmmm, perhaps there’s room for me in this industry too. And what’s interesting is that we have become good friends; we keep in touch. We have a lot in common.” (Indeed. Sage Steele’s father Gary Steele, who held the rank of colonel when he retired after 23 years in the Army, was an outstanding tight end at West Point. Jordan Plant’s father Eugene Hardy, who is retired from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office where he was a detective assigned to the gang unit, was a cornerback and kick returner at the University of Arizona.)
One day when she was at UNLV, a professor told her that there was this upstart company, Premier Boxing Champions, that had an opening for an intern. Jordan auditioned and was hired. In May of 2015, she was bumped up to a full-fledged employee. When she married Caleb Plant, she transitioned away from Jordan Hardy. Asked why she didn’t choose to keep her maiden name, she replied, “Perhaps if I had been more established, I would have kept it, but I was cool with becoming Jordan Plant. I’m proud to say he’s my husband.”
Perhaps one reason that so little has been written about boxers’ wives is that many don’t stick around. Jake LaMotta was married seven times, one more than Willie Pep. (Referencing the first five, Pep said, “they were all good housekeepers; when they divorced me, they kept the house.”)
Jordan Plant has a theory about the turnover. “A boxer is a modern-day gladiator,” she says. “To be a good boxing wife, you have to understand that a fighter has to be selfish. When it’s fight week, I let Caleb focus on boxing, I don’t even let him take out the trash. I am not going to be a distraction.”
That may be so, but one would be hard-pressed to name a boxer’s wife who is more immersed in her husband’s career. Jordan coordinates things when Caleb is in camp. Among other things, she makes sure his sparring partners arrive to the gym on time and get paid. “I have scored some of his sparring rounds,” she says. “Caleb appreciates the feedback.”
Besides being a TV personality and a housewife, Jordan has found time to compete in two powerlifting events and in October will launch her clothing line, JP Athletics. She’s also a mother, “a full-time mom” she emphasizes. She and Caleb welcomed a daughter into their life in August of 2022. Her name is Charly.
What if Charly showed an interest in becoming a boxer? Would her parents be okay with it? “We have talked about that,” says Jordan. “Because she’s growing up around the sport, it wouldn’t be surprising if she took it up. It’s a hard way to make a living so we certainly wouldn’t encourage it, but we would have her back if she persisted.”
When Caleb is in the heat of battle, Jordan sends him good vibes by way of mental telepathy. And when he takes a hard punch, does she feel it too?
When we broached this question to her, she didn’t think it was stupid at all and, if Norma Graziano were around today, she would have likely reacted the same way. There’s a kinship there, no matter how different their day-to-day lives.
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