Caleb Plant wasn’t bothered by the punch that sent him to the canvas late in the fourth round of his last fight.

Trevor McCumby attempted to out-muscle Plant at times during their September 14 fight in Las Vegas, a tactic that enabled the unproven underdog to land a shot to Plant’s shoulder that dropped him. The former IBF super middleweight champion felt fine after reaching his feet quickly and threw hard punches back at McCumby before that round ended.

It was what Plant did during the fifth round, though, that he feels made what had been a physical battle to that point relatively easy for him. Fighting on the inside helped Plant pick apart the rugged McCumby, whom Plant eventually stopped in the ninth round on the Canelo Alvarez-Edgar Berlanga undercard.

“In round five, I made the adjustment to go to the inside and I felt like it was a great adjustment,” Plant told The Ring. “Me, my dad and Bread [trainer Stephen Edwards] were all on one accord. I come back [to my corner] and Bread and my dad said, ‘You gotta stay in there on the inside the rest of the time, stay in his chest.’

“And I had already, at the beginning of round four and the end of round four, tested those waters a little bit. And I felt comfortable there. I felt like I was having success, so round five, boom! Just stayed there and it was a great adjustment and, you know, obviously from then on out he had no answers.”

Plant (23-2, 14 KOs) didn’t divulge how he’ll approach his fight against Armando Resendiz on May 31 in Las Vegas. If the 32-year-old Plant’s performance in the McCumby bout is an accurate indication, the aggressive Mexican underdog might find Plant in front of him more than Resendiz anticipates.

Resendiz (15-2, 11 KOs) was stopped by Elijah Garcia (17-1, 13 KOs) in the ninth round of an action-packed middleweight match two fights ago. Garcia’s technical knockout of Resendiz and Plant’s accomplishments are among the reasons DraftKings considers the Ashland City, Tennessee native a 20-1 favorite in a 12-round main event Amazon’s Prime Video will stream.

Plant was a 14-1 favorite over McCumby (28-1, 21 KOs), who had some success in the first four rounds of the most significant fight of his career.

McCumby made Plant respect him during an especially effective second round. He knocked Plant off balance with a right to the body, backed up Plant with a left hook to his head and McCumby’s team argued he should’ve been credited with a knockdown after landing a left late in the second round.

Referee Allen Huggins ruled that McCumby pushed Plant to the canvas, but Plant appeared to be buzzed by that shot as he walked back to his corner.

McCumby trailed, though, by scores of 78-73, 77-74 and 76-75 when Huggins stepped in to prevent Plant from bombarding McCumby with power punches, as he was backed into the ropes toward the end of the ninth round.

“I thought he had caught me with a good shot at the end of round two,” Plant recalled. “But I got up, and before I even made it back into the corner I felt like [on] the first step my legs felt fine and my head felt clear. I sat down, felt good, stood up, felt good, and went right back to work in round three. Round one I was piecing him up. Round two, until the very end, I was piecing him up. Round three, piecing him up.

“Round four, he kinda bull-rushed me and, you know, he was winging ‘em. You know what I’m saying? He was lunging in, jumping in, and kinda like a bull. So, he had hit me on my shoulder and I fell. It counted as a [knockdown], but I stayed cool and calm in the situation and didn’t get all upset and flustered. There’s nothing you can do about it, so the best thing is to stay calm and stick to the plan.”