Froch thinks Callum Smith beats Anthony Dirrell

By Boxing News - 01/19/2017 - Comments

Image: Froch thinks Callum Smith beats Anthony Dirrell

By Scott Gilfoid: Carl Froch is picking #1 WBC Callum Smith (22-0, 17 KOs) to beat No.1 WBO Anthony Dirrell (30-1, 24 KOs) when the two of them face each other for the now vacant WBC super middleweight title.

Champion Badou Jack vacated the belt on Wednesday of this week in order to move up to light heavyweight to get bigger fights than the ones available in the 168lb division. The World Boxing Council will soon be ordering the Dirrell vs. Smith fight for the vacant WBC super middleweight title.

Froch thinks that Dirrell, 32, is the perfect opponent for the 26-year-old Smith to beat. I don’t know if I agree with that at all. I think Dirrell is all wrong for the stork-like 6’3” Smith, and I can see this one going really badly for him. You have to remember that Smith has no experience against talented fighters. The best guys that Smith has faced have been Christopher Rebrasse and Vladine Biosse. Smith didn’t look good against either of those guys. He was getting tagged a lot by both fighters. If they had any kind of punching power, I think Smith would have been knocked out.

“He’s the more dangerous of the two Dirrell brothers, because he can punch,” said Froch to skysports.com about Anthony Dirrell. “But I think Callum Smith has got the beating of Anthony Dirrell. That is a fight that I would be very confident Callum Smith could and should win. If he’s going on to be a world champion, then that’s a fight that he needs to be winning.”

I agree that if Smith is going to be a world champion, HE SHOULD be able to beat Dirrell, but I don’t see him as having the talent to do that. The only guys that have given Dirrell problems during his career was Badou Jack and Sakio Bika, both of which I feel would destroy Callum Smith. Dirrell fought the wrong fight against both of those guys, and that’s why he had problems.

In Dirrell’s first fight against Bika in 2013, they fought to a 12 round draw. Dirrell made the mistake of fighting against the ropes through most of the fight, and this allowed Bika to get the better of him with combinations. In the rematch in 2014, Dirrell stayed in the center of the ring and took the fight to Bika, easily beating him by a 12 round decision.

In Dirrell’s loss to Jack in 2015, he was stationary for the entire fight, and enabled Jack to walk him down and land a lot of hard body shots. Dirrell’s talented brother Andre Dirrell was trying to get him to use movement, because that’s how you beat Jack, but Anthony didn’t have the wheels at the time to use movement.

Dirrell has since improved his footwork, and he’s a much more mobile type of fighter. I don’t think the mobility is going to be necessary for Dirrell to beat Callum Smith. I think he beats him by walking him down like Gennady Golovkin, and nailing him to the head and body with his big power shots. Dirrell will give Smith a taste of his own medicine to make him feel what it’s like to be on the receiving end of hard shots.

It’s too bad for Smith that he’s got to face a talent like Dirrell so early in his career, because if he had another route to a world title, I think he could become a world champion. I rate Smith above George Groves, James DeGale, Tyron Zeuge and Fedor Chudinov. Smith has the perfect style to beat all those guys. The only two fighters in the division that beat Smith are Anthony Dirrell and Gilberto Ramirez. I would add Andre Dirrell to that list, but he’s just not active any longer. Andre fought only once in 2015 and 2016. That’s not nearly enough for him to stay relevant and more importantly to stay a sharp fighter in my view.

Smith is going to need to improve his game considerably for him to be able to compete with the likes of Dirrell. Smith doesn’t have the boxing skills to win this fight. As soon as Smith dips down to start throwing his body shots, Dirrell is going to clock him with an overhand right to the head. Smith has to change his whole style of fighting for him to be able to compete with Dirrell, and I don’t think he can do that.

Smith’s whole game is predicated on his body punching. Smith is like a bigger version of former WBO 154lb champion Liam Smith. There’s no difference between the two brothers. If Smith won a world title at 168, he would be just another Liam Smith type champion in my opinion. He would be paper champion, but unfortunately, I don’t see Callum Smith beating Dirrell. He got the back luck of having Dirrell as the No.2 contender in the division instead of a soft job. I don’t know what Smith’s promoter Eddie Hearn can do about that.

Anthony Dirrell and Callum Smith have a common opponent in Norbert Nemesapati. Both fighters stopped Nemesapati in the 6th, but Smith had a lot more problems with him than Dirrell. That was a hard fight for Smith.