(Photo credit: Tom Hogan – Hoganphotos/Roc Nation Sports) By Gav Duthie: Shortly after the confirmation that Paul Smith 35-5 (20) would be fighting Super Middleweight supremo Andre Ward 27-0 (14) the Liverpudlian confessed he would have fought Wladimir Klitschko for the money on offer. This suggested to me that this was no more than a retirement fund for Smith and not a fight he actually believed he could win.
On the news that Smith has weighed in at 176.4lbs (4.4lbs over the contracted limit) I’m not sure what to make of it. He will be fined a substantial fraction of his purse which makes the big payday less lucrative.