Liam Smith says he’ll beat the “bully” Canelo Alvarez

By Boxing News - 08/19/2016 - Comments

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By Dan Ambrose: WBO junior middleweight champion Liam “Beefy” Smith (23-0-1, 13 KOs) says he’s ready to beat the “bully” Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) next month in their fight on September 17 at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Smith says that boxing fans see Canelo as a monster, but he’s not. Smith points out that he’s bigger than the 5’9” Canelo.

Smith figures that he can fight exactly like Canelo in trading body shots to get the better of him on the night. Above all, Smith, 27, wants to give Canelo a loss so that he can make some life changing money in the rematch when Canelo comes around looking to avenge his loss.

Canelo can’t walk away from a loss to Smith, because this isn’t the type of fight that the Mexican star can walk away from like he did with his controversial 12 round decision over Erislandy Lara in 2014. Canelo appeared to lose to Lara in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans, but the judges gave him a 12 round split decision.

Canelo didn’t bother giving Lara a rematch to clear up the controversy unfortunately. But if Canelo losses to Smith, he’ll only be hurting himself if he walks away from the fight, saying he should have won and that he’s not going to bother fighting him a second time.

“The focus is to be in great shape and bully the bully,” said Smith. “He’s a solid 154, but my strategy is to match him with everything, then go one step further and do things he doesn’t want to,” said Smith.

It’s unknown what Smith is talking about when he refers to the 26-year-old Canelo as a “bully,” but it could be that he sees him as a bully due to him beating over-matched little guys like welterweight Amir Khan, and a lot of lesser fighters like James Kirkland, Alfredo Angulo, Matthew Hatton and Josesito Lopez. Canelo has padded his record with a lot of soft jobs unfortunately.

Canelo did fight Floyd Mayweather Jr, but he had a huge weight advantage over him and he made a lot of money in the fight. There was no real risk in that fight due to the big payday that Canelo got. What boxing fans don’t understand was Canelo giving up his WBC middleweight title recently to avoid fighting Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. The fans wanted to see Canelo take the fight with Triple G, and it was disturbing how he gave up the WBC belt, especially with the bold talking that he did after his win over Amir Khan last May.

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When Smith says he’s going to do things that Canelo doesn’t want to do, he’s very likely talking about pushing a fast pace by forcing the Mexican fighter to fight hard for three minutes of every round without letting him have frequent rest breaks. It’s not news that Canelo needs to have rest breaks during the course of his rounds, as well as after the rounds. Canelo usually gets those rest breaks by backing off to the outside or backing up to the ropes where he leans plays possum.

Canelo will mainly throw jabs when he’s resting. For Smith, the thing that he needs to do is quickly follow Canelo and fire body shots so that Canelo is catching fire at the same time he’s trying to take gulps of air. If you look at Canelo when he’s tire, he takes larges breaths of air like a gold fish out of water.

If Smith realizes what Canelo is doing, he can keep the heat on him and land to his body to keep him from getting the oxygen that he so badly needs. Canelo isn’t really cut out for fast pace 12 round fights. He’s more suited towards fighting at a slow pace where he can rest and then come back with powerful combinations or single shots against guys that he outweighs by 15 to 25 pounds. Canelo will likely have 20lb weight advantage over Smith on the night. Smith will rehydrate to around 165, and then look to deal with the 185l+ pound Canelo.

“A win is going to mean everything, it’s going to change my life, give me a better future and announce myself as the best 154 pound fighter in the world,” said Smith. “I know many thought Canelo was a monster and a lot better than me, which he is, but they will also be surprised how much I raise my game.”

Smith can definitely set himself up for life financially if he beats Canelo. The purse split that Smith will get in a rematch against Canelo will likely be a lot better than it was for this fight. There will be a lot of interest from the boxing public in a second fight, because fans will want to see if Smith can repeat the victory by handing Canelo a second straight defeat. It would be big news if Smith beats Canelo a second time, because it would pretty much finish the Mexican star as a top name.

Smith would be seen as a good fighter if he beats Canelo, but he still won’t be viewed as the No.1 fighter in the 154lb division. For Smith to be seen as the top fighter in the division, he would need to beat Erislandy Lara, Demetrius Andrade, Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo and Julian Williams. Smith can’t just beat Canelo and then announce himself as the best fighter in the division without fighting the top guys. That’s not how it’s done in sports. If it were that easy, teams in the NFL could proclaim themselves the Super Bowl winner ahead of time after Week 1 in the season. They laughed at by the other teams and the fans if they did something wacky like saying they’re already the best.

Smith has a really tough task ahead of him in this fight, because he not only has to beat Canelo, but he has to beat him so convincingly that the judges will give him the decision despite the huge crowd giving Canelo constant support throughout the fight for anything he does right.