Andre Ward to face Paul Smith on June 20th at Oracle Arena, Oakland, CA

By Boxing News - 04/23/2015 - Comments

smith455By Scott Gilfoid: WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (27-0, 14 KOs) will be looking to shake off a bit of ring rust on June 20th when he faces 32-year-old British fighter Paul Smith (35-5, 20 KOs) at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. The Ward-Smith fight will be televised on BET rather than HBO in the United States.

It’s obviously not the ideal opponent for the talented 31-year-old Ward, as there are much bigger fights for a heck of a lot more money out there than facing a fighter like Smith, who has lost his last two fights against WBO 168 pound champion Arthur Abraham.

I’m giving Ward a free pass for picking out Smith as an opponent for this fight instead of someone that has some ability. Ward hasn’t fought in ages since 2013 so you can’t blame him for finding a body to fight instead of someone with the talent to compete with him. As long as Ward doesn’t take it out of 1st gear, Smith should be able to give him some rounds.

Oh man, this is going to be a sick mismatch. I sure hope the referee is ready to halt this fight quick when it gets out of hand in the first three rounds because Ward is going to do a number on Smith, I hate to say. I’d sure like the fight to be a competitive one, but I just don’t see the talent being there for Smith. You’ve got to have talent to be in the ring with Ward, and I see Smith as being barren of that ingredient. I mean, the cupboard is bare in the talent department for Smith in this fight. If I were Smith’s trainer, I’d have the white towel close at hand on June 20th so I can toss it in the ring quick when the fight starts getting out of hand early.

Ward wanted to setup a fight against WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch, but his promoter Eddie Hearn was talking about wanting to have Ward agree to fight Froch in his home city of Nottingham, UK, and Ward reportedly wasn’t receptive to that idea. I mean, Ward is agreeable to fighting Froch in the UK, but not in Nottingham.

It was in Nottingham that Froch defeated American Andre Dirrell by a controversial decision in 2009 in the Super Six tournament. It was a very strange fight with Froch fouling Dirrell constantly and not being penalized by the referee. Oddly enough, it was Dirrell who ended up being penalized for clinching. Like I said, a very, very strange fight.

“I cannot wait to get back in the ring and test myself against a class act like Andre Ward,” said Smith via skysports.com. “I proved that I belong at the top level with my performances against Arthur Abraham and this is a challenge that I am relishing. Andre is a top pound-for-pound fighter and someone I respect a lot, but he has only boxed once in almost three years and I will give it everything I have got.”

I don’t know that Smith proved himself that he belongs at the top level in his two losses to Abraham. As far as I can tell, Smith lost most of the rounds of those fights by a fairly wide margin. Given that a lot of boxing fans see Abraham as little more than a paper champion holding onto a fringe title, I don’t think Smith proved anything in that fight.

I personally don’t rate Abraham as being worthy of holding a world title, as I see at least 10 other fighters in the division better than him. I think even Smith’s brother Callum Smith would trounce Abraham if that fight were to be made. In my book, if you’re not at least within the top 10 in the division in terms of overall talent, then I don’t recognize you as being “top level.”

Right now, I rate the following fighters better than Abraham: Andre Dirrell, Anthony Dirrell, Andre Ward, Gilberto Ramirez, Carl Froch, James DeGale, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Edwin Rodriguez, Derek Edwards, Callum Smith, Vincent Feigenbutz, Julius Jackson, and Fedor Chudinov. Besides them, I think there’s at least a half dozen more fighters that could possibly beat Abraham as well. As such, I don’t see Paul Smith as being top level just because he was beaten by Abraham. I see Smith as being bottom level, because like I said, I don’t rate Abraham as someone who should be holding down a world title. If he were to face any of the above mentioned fighters, I see him losing to all of them.

“I am fresh and confident going into this fight. It’s a massive opportunity for me and one that I took with both hands when it was offered,” Smith said. “I have spent a lot of time boxing in the United States and I look forward to returning for this fight.”



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