Paul Smith up against it with Abraham fight

By Boxing News - 09/26/2014 - Comments

smith(Credit: Thomas Goos / Lawrence Lustig) By Scott Gilfoid: Trainer Joe Gallagher believes that #5 WBO Paul Smith (35-3, 20 KOs) is going to surprise a lot of boxing fans on Saturday night by going into Germany at the Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany and defeating WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (40-4, 28 KOs) in front of his own fans. Gallagher sees the 31-year-old Smith’s experience and size as being important factors in him beating the 5’9” Abraham.

The 5’11” Smith will have a two inch height advantage over Abraham, but I’m not so sure on whether that’ll mean all that much because Smith tends to crowd his opponents rather than using his reach to fire away on the outside. He reminds me a lot of heavyweight David Price with his habit of not using his reach when punching. Price stands far too close when throwing his punches and that leaves him open for getting nailed by his shorter opponents.

smith does the same thing, and I don’t think that’s going to change by Saturday night. He is what he is.

“I think it gave everyone a shock to see that Paul’s the bigger man in this fight,” Gallagher said to the Dailymail.co.uk. “Paul is in a really, really good place; he’s put in over 100 rounds of sparring and we’ve tried to tick all the boxes so all the little demons that might pop up on his shoulder, we’ve taken care of them. Paul is an experienced fighter; he’s been around for a while.”

Smith’s experience means very little because he’s not faced the type of opposition that Abraham has. Abraham consistently has fought far, far better opposition than Smith has during his career, so I’m not really sure what Gallagher is talking about. I mean, yeah, Smith has fought a whole mess of fights during his career, but just look at the opposition, will you? He’s been facing guys like Tony Dodson during his career instead of stepping it up to face the class of the division like the Dirrell brothers and Andre Ward.

It pains me to say this put I think Smith is going to get wiped out on Saturday night straight away by Abraham. The mind is willing but I believe the flesh is weak with Smith, and I just don’t see him having the stamina, power, chin and especially the talent to compete with the 34-year-old Abraham. The best I can hope for is Smith making it the full 12 round distance and losing by a 12 round decision, but that’s about it.



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