David Benavidez vs. Caleb Plant: Why the bad blood between the two

When it comes to making pay-per-view matchups that boxing fans can’t help but circle on the calendar as a must-see event, the idea of having two prime fighters with contrasting styles and equal levels of hunger to do whatever it takes to win sounds like the perfect foundation. 

From that standpoint, Saturday’s super middleweight offering between former champions David Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) and Caleb Plant (22-1, 13 KOs) certainly checks all the boxes as the two prepare to touch gloves inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas (Showtime PPV, 9 p.m. ET) in a pivotal pairing for title contention in the sport’s hottest division. 

But when you can add the element of legitimate dislike between the two and a saucy backstory that involves members of their own families and dates back at least five years, you have all the makings for a crossover fight that welcomes viewers from outside the world of combat sports. 

Sometimes, the promotion of bad blood between two fighters can be more hopeful for the sake of marketing than is actually true as the two combatants often join in on the adversarial build to fight night in order to help create more of a buzz (and more money in their pockets). But in the case of Benavidez and Plant, this one is real. 

It’s so real, in fact, that there’s little doubt the collective emotions of both boxers will likely play some kind of a role in how this weekend’s showdown is ultimately decided inside the ring.  

So how exactly did we get here? 

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From the perspective of Benavidez, a 26-year-old destroyer of proud Mexican blood from Arizona, he and his family — which includes father/trainer Jose Benavidez Sr. and older brother/former…