By Scott Gilfoid: Former two-time world title challenger Paul Smith (38-6, 22 KOs) says his promoter Eddie Hearn says he’s going to fight for a world title against the winner of Tyson Zeuge vs. Isaac Ekpo fight. Smith, 36, has lost three out of his last six fights and isn’t ranked in the top 15.
Smith would appear to be the last fighter you would expect to fight for a world title. Smith lost to Andre Ward and former WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham twice. Smith even got a rematch against Abraham in 2015 after he complained about his decision loss in the first fight. You don’t see that too often.
Abraham didn’t complain, as Gilberto Ramirez was creeping up on him at the time in the World Boxing Organization’s rankings. Fighting Paul Smith again arguably extended Abraham’s reign one fight longer than it would have been had he fought Ramirez in 2015 instead of Smith.
This would be Smith’s third title shot when he fights WBA champion Zeuge. When you look at the fact that many contenders never get title shots in their careers, it seems disturbing that Smith is getting three title shots despite failing twice already. In looking at the World Boxing Association’s top 15 ranking, there are plenty of contenders that have never fought for a world title before.
It would be nice if one of these contenders got a shot at the winner of the Zeuge-Expo fight instead of Paul Smith: Patrick Nielsen, Jesse Hart, or Zac Dunn. If Smith wants to fight for another world title, he should at least beat one of those guys to earn a shot. Benavidez would be my own personal pick for Smith to fight.
I don’t see Smith getting anywhere near Benavidez though, even though he’s still a very green fighter. I can’t see Smith taking that fight and potentially getting knocked out.
Paul Smith said this to skysports.com about getting a title shot against the winner of the Zeuge-Expo fight:
“The WBA have ordered Tyron Zeuge to fight his mandatory, so the way I’m looking at it, the news I’ve had from my manager and from Eddie [Hearn] is I fight the winner,” Smith said. “I need to fight beforehand, so I’m looking at either March in Manchester or April in Liverpool, and then go straight into a world title fight then.”
Zeuge looks pretty flawed. I wouldn’t be surprised if he loses to Expo, who looks flawed as well. It’s just sad how the super middleweight division has become so watered down with titles. The WBA Super World super middleweight title will be fought over by George Groves and Fedor Chudinov. I don’t see anything super about either of those guys.
The 168lb division is going through a really weak period with mediocre fighters fighting for titles, and their challengers being old guys like Paul Smith. You can argue that Smith is little more than a high level journeyman at this point in his career. He never did anything earlier in his career other than losing to James DeGale and Groves. Smith’s best win of his career was probably against Tony Dodson. That was a terrible le fight to watch.
Smith has won his last three fights against Daniel Regi (28-13), Barthlomiej Gafka (17-20-3), and Bronislav Kubin (18-18-2). If Smith is going to fight once before fighting for another world title, I’m really hoping he fights an actual contender rather than another journeyman like he’s been doing in his last three fights. What happened to earning title shots instead of backing into them?
I’m wondering how many title shots Paul Smith is going to get in his career? If all Smith has to do is beat three to four journeyman to get a title shot, then I can see him getting more title shots in the future. The sanctioning bodies should at least have standards so that only the best are fighting for their titles. If this was the NFL, Smith would going to the Super Bowl after beating a season’s worth of poor teams.