NEW YORK – Anthony Dirrell reiterated Wednesday that he isn’t overly impressed by Caleb Plant’s resume.

Dirrell declined to label Plant an elite-level boxer because the former WBC super middleweight champion doesn’t think his upcoming opponent has faced enough exceptional foes to warrant that type of praise.

“It’s just a tough question because Caleb has fought two people,” Dirrell told a group of reporters during an open workout at Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn. “Everybody knows that. And everybody knows those two people.”

The two fighters to whom Dirrell referred are Canelo Alvarez and Jose Uzcategui.

Alvarez (58-2-2, 39 KOs) knocked out Plant in the 11th round of Plant’s most recent fight, which took place 11 months ago at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Four bouts before the Mexican superstar stopped him, Plant dropped Uzcategui once apiece in the second and fourth rounds, overcame a cut sustained during the fourth round and withstood Uzcategui’s rally in the later rounds to win the IBF 168-pound championship from the Venezuelan veteran in March 2019 at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

Uzcategui (32-4, 27 KOs) won the IBF’s interim super middleweight title by stopping Anthony Dirrell’s older brother, Andre Dirrell, in the eighth round of their rematch in March 2018 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Andre Dirrell defeated Uzcategui by disqualification in their first fight because Uzcategui hit him after the bell sounded to end the eighth round.

Dirrell’s uncle and trainer, Leon Lawson Jr., infamously sucker-punched Uzcategui in the ring after their first fight.

Plant dismissed Dirrell’s criticism of his resume three days before they’re scheduled to meet in a 12-round, 168-pound elimination match on the Deontay Wilder-Robert Helenius FOX Sports Pay-Per-View undercard at Barclays Center (9 p.m. ET; $74.99).

“Well, you know, Jose Uzcategui would’ve beaten either of the Dirrell brothers,” Plant said. “Stopped one of them twice [Andre] and woulda stopped the other one [Anthony]. And y’all seen what I did to him. ‘Porky’ Medina, he’s no bum, he’s no chump. Even Feigenbutz, he was the WBA [interim] champion at one point. So, you know, you don’t get to that position by just being a bum.

“[Dirrell has] never had a successful title defense in all of his fights. And he won’t have a successful title defense in all of his career because, after Saturday night, he’s up out of here. He’s retired.”

The 30-year-old Plant (21-2, 12 KOs), of Ashland City, Tennessee, defeated Mexico’s Medina (41-9, 35 KOs) by unanimous decision in the bout prior to his victory over Uzcategui. He made his second defense of the IBF belt he lost Alvarez against Germany’s Vincent Feigenbutz (35-3, 31 KOs), whom Plant topped by 10th-round technical knockout in February 2020 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.

Anthony Dirrell (34-2-2, 25 KOs), a Flint, Michigan native who will turn 38 on Friday, has lost only to David Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs) and Badou Jack (27-3-3, 16 KOs).

Benavidez, a two-time WBC 168-pound champion, knocked out Dirrell in the ninth round of a September 2019 fight at Staples Center in Los Angeles to win back the WBC super middleweight crown. Jack edged Dirrell by majority decision in their 12-rounder to win the WBC super middleweight title from him in April 2015 at UIC Pavilion in Chicago.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.