By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten super middleweight prospect Callum Smith wants to face EBU 168 pound champion George Groves in the near future, according to Smith’s trainer Joe Gallagher. Smith, the younger brother of the recently beaten Paul Smith, wants to test himself against Groves. Whether that’s a possibility is hard to say.
We won’t know until Groves gets in the ring against WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell in 2015, because Groves is likely going to play it safe until then so that he doesn’t mess up his potential world title shot.
“Groves is firmly in Callum’s sights and that is the fight we want,” Gallagher said to Skysports.com’s Toe-to-toe podcast. “We’ll be hot on his heels whatever route he takes.”
The only way I see Groves fighting Callum Smith is if Dirrell whips Groves like many boxing fans think he’ll do, and once that happens Groves will need to focus on defending his European strap. He can always face Smith if he wants to have an opponent that will sell a few tickets in the UK. I mean, I kind of doubt that Groves would take a fight against Smith off the back of a knockout loss to Dirrell, because that doesn’t seem like a smart move.
Groves’ promoter Kalle Sauerland did a good job of scouting out the light hitting Christopher Rebrasse to fight after Groves’ back to back knockout losses to IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl froch. Heck, even the World Boxing Council went along with that fight, letting it be a WBC super middleweight title eliminator rather than telling Hearn that Groves needs to fight a better contender than Rebrasse like Gilberto Martinez or Sakio Bika.
Smith didn’t look good in his recent fight against Vladine Biosse. That was a competitive fight and Smith took a lot of head and body shots. I didn’t like the way Smith looked in that fight because he was kind of exposed more or less by a fighter that he should have been able to beat with ease. Andre Dirrell faced the same Biosse after Smith and knocked him out with ease in the 5th round.
Callum Smith will be fighting this Saturday night against journeyman Rafael Sosa Pintos (48-10, 19 KOs).
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