Liam Smith wants to win back WBO title

By Boxing News - 09/18/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: Liam Smith was blasted out in nine rounds last Saturday night in losing his WBO junior middleweight title to #1 WBO Saul Canelo Alvarez at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Smith was outgunned from the very first round of the fight by the younger, faster, stronger and smarter Canelo Alvarez.

The only chance Smith had in the fight was to throw a lot of punches and force Canelo to fight for a full three minutes of every round. Smith proved incapable of doing that though, as he only fought in spurts and gave Canelo plenty of rest breaks.

In the end, Smith got knocked to the canvas three times in the fight and stopped with a body shot in the 9th. It wasn’t pretty in the end. Smith was lying on the canvas in agony after getting tagged by a left to the body.

Smith says he wants to win back his WBO title. With Canelo revealing last night that he’s going to vacate the WBO title, Smith has a chance of possibly fighting #3 WBO Miguel Cotto; although I kind of doubt that fight will happen. Cotto probably isn’t going to want to burn up a valuable fight with what’s left of his career facing a guy that was just knocked out by Canelo.

Another negative that might keep Cotto from fighting Smith for the WBO title is #2 WBO Demetrius Andrade. I doubt that Cotto will like the idea of having to face Andrade if he beats Smith. Cotto is a good fighter, but don’t think he’s got the size or the youth to beat Andrade.

“I wasn’t coming for the occasion, I’m gutted,” Smith said to Boxnationofficial. “I’ll probably cry my eyes out tonight when I go to bed. I didn’t come to make up numbers and fight in front of 50,000 people; I came to win but lost my title tonight. We’ll go back, obviously have a little time off, let the cuts heal and then go back in the gym and start working back towards another world title shot.”

Smith had his moments in the fight last Saturday when he was backing Canelo up and giving it to him to the head and body. I thought Smith fought well in the 4th round when he let his hands go. If Smith had been able to fight like that in the remainder of the rounds, I think he would have been able to possibly pull off an upset. However, Smith couldn’t seem to make himself to throw punches.

It seemed totally obvious what Smith needed to do for him to win the fight by throwing a lot of punches, but he just wouldn’t do it. It was pretty sad.

I can’t see Smith being able to come back from this loss to win a world title right now. If he has to fight Cotto or Andrade for the WBO title, he’ll likely lose. Smith, 28, is young enough to wait out the Charlo brothers until they grow out of the 154lb division and abandon their titles. Once one of the Charlo brothers give up their straps, then Smith can slide in and possibly take one of the belts if he’s not matched against a good junior middleweight.

“The week was unbelievable. I wish I could do the whole week again. I loved every bit of it, everything up to the fight. We’ll have to go back and see what I learned from it, but I loved it all apart from the end result,” said Smith.

The next time Smith fights for a world title, he needs to remember to let his hands go, because he’s never going to beat the Charlo brothers, Cotto or Andrade by standing around staring at them all night long waiting to be brained. I don’t know what Smith was thinking he was going to achieve by standing in front of Canelo with a grin on his face while taking heavy shots one after another. Smith needed to let his hands go the way he talked about wanting to do. I think Smith lacked the stamina to throw punches, and that’s why he just stood there looking at Canelo. If I was working Smith’s corner instead of Joe Gallagher, I would have lit a fire under Smith’s backside to get him to throw punches.