"An angel in heaven" - Fighters and fans react as Caleb Plant remembers late daughter on her birthday

Caleb Plant recently honored his late daughter, Alia, with a heartfelt message. Plant experienced the profound loss of his daughter in January 2015, when she was just 20 months old.

Every year on May 7, 'Sweethands' commemorates her memory through touching social media messages, often accompanied by photos of her.

Like clockwork, the former IBF super middleweight champion took to Instagram this year to pay tribute to her on what would have been his late daughter's 11th birthday, sharing a collection of cherished photos in her memory. He wrote:

"Happy Birthday, Alia. 11 years old, crazy thing. I love and miss you, Punkin. Live up today. I’m sure you’re running around going crazy on your B'day. I wonder what young girl you’ve grown into, and I'm always wondering what you look like. We’ll be together again when the time is right. Until then."

Check out Caleb Plant's post below:

The combat sports community responded to Plant's post with a spectrum of touching reactions.

UFC middleweight fighter Bo Nickal wrote:

"God bless you and your family."

Former IBF featherweight champion Bilal Dib wrote:

"An angel in heaven."

Check out some more reactions to Caleb Plant below:

Credits: @calebplant on Instagram

'Sweethands' was at the onset of his professional boxing journey when Alia tragically succumbed to a rare medical condition, which subjected her to at least 150 seizures each day.

Plant tirelessly sent her blood samples to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in a quest to uncover the root cause of her affliction. Despite his relentless efforts, all tests yielded negative results, leaving the precise cause of her suffering forever shrouded in mystery.

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When Caleb Plant opened up about his daughter's final moments

During an interview with MMA journalist Kevin Iole in January 2019, Caleb Plant shared the heart-wrenching story of his daughter's final moments.

'Sweethands' recounted how doctors repeatedly warned him about Alia's grim prognosis due to her brain abnormality and seizures, though he initially struggled to accept their assessment:

"The doctors would pull me into this little white room, and they had that look, and they said to me, 'Ok, Mr. Plant, we want you to know that we’ve done everything that we can do, but your daughter, she’s going to wind up passing away tonight.'"

The 31-year-old American further revealed that he eventually came to recognize the severity of his daughter's declining health condition while she lay in a coma. He made the difficult decision to maintain her on life support until his family and friends could gather at the hospital to bid their farewells and pay their respects.