By Scott Gilfoid: Former British super middleweight champion Paul Smith (31-2, 17 Ko’s) wants to get revenge against the talented James DeGale (10-1, 8 KO’s), who soundly beat him by a 9th round TKO last year in December 2010.
Smith has won a couple of fights since then over 2nd tier opposition, but on December 17th, the 28-year-old Smith faces the formidable task of taking on British and Commonwealth super middleweight champion George Groves (13-0, 10 KO’s) at the echo Arena in Liverpool, England.
Smith feels he win this fight, and if he gets passed Groves, then he wants to take on the 25-year-old DeGale, as long as DeGale beats his next opponent EBU super middleweight campion Piotr Wilczewski (29-1, 10 KO’s) on October 15th. This will be a tough fight for DeGale, one that he feels is even tougher than his questionable 12 round decision loss to Groves last May.
Smith said this to the BBC Sport: “Let’s hope I can beat Groves and fight DeGale for three titles.”
Sadly, Smith wasn’t ready accept that he was beaten by the better man in his one-sided loss to DeGale, saying “I didn’t perform near to what I can do. I didn’t get the graft in the gym, which I needed but that’s all in the past.”
DeGale just had too much talent for Smith as far as I can tell. There’s only so much you can do before you run into a guy like DeGale that is simply unbeatable with the talent that you have. I still see DeGale as unbeaten, as the Groves decision was a horrible one and I don’t have any respect for the scoring on that fight.
Smith will have his hands full against Groves, especially if Groves runs like he did against DeGale. I think Smith can cut off the ring and beat Groves, but he’s going to have to be quick on his feet because Groves has done a good job of mimicking David Haye’s fighting style with the hit and run and the use of a lot of feints.
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