By Scott Gilfoid: WBA Super World super middleweight champion Andre Ward (27-0, 14 KOs) is taking his June 20th tune-up opponent Paul Smith (35-5, 20 KOs) very seriously as a threat to his 168lb title rein despite the fact that the 32-year-old British fighter is coming off of consecutive losses to WBO 168lb champ Arthur Abraham.
The Ward-Smith fight will take place at a catch-weight of 172 pounds. The reason for that is because Ward has been out of the ring since 2013. It doesn’t make sense for Ward to drain down all the way to 168 when he’s been out of the ring for almost two years.
It’s also possible that Ward could move up to the light heavyweight division in the near future if he can’t make the super middleweight division’s weight limit of 168. There are some potentially interesting fights at 175 for Ward such as Adonis Stevenson, Juergen Braehmer, Sergey Kovalev, and Artur Beterbiev. At least those guys would likely fight Ward, unlike some of the top fighters at 168 who have shown no interest in wanting to face him in the last couple of years.
Ward realizes that Smith sees the fight as his “Super Bowl” because if he were to pull off a huge upset of Ward, he could in turn take that victory and move on to a nice money fight. A win for Smith would mar Ward’s perfect 27-0 record and lead to a lot of boxing fans questioning his legacy. It would be a tremendous blow for Ward’s career to lose to a limited fighter like Smith, who has lost every major fight he’s had in his pro career.
The Ward-Smith fight will be taking place at the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California, USA. This is Ward’s home city, and the venue will likely be packed by the time the fight takes place.
“This is (Smith’s) Super Bowl. And because it’s his Super Bowl it has to be my Super Bowl,” Ward said via Boxingjunkie.com. “I’ve never approached a fight like a ‘tune-up.’ … He’s a tough dude. He’s bringing it, he’s trying to come for the upset and I got to be prepared. The pressure’s on me to not only win, but to win spectacularly. I’m putting that pressure on myself. Especially in front of my hometown fans, it’s a big deal.”
Smith is obviously going to be swinging for the fences in this fight, as he’s going to need to try and land something big for him to have a chance of winning the fight. He doesn’t have the boxing skills or the talent to beat a fighter in Ward’s class by a decision. It’s knockout or nothing for Smith.
The good news is that Smith has good punching power. The bad news is that Ward is very hard to hit with wild shots. This means that Smith is going to have to go head hunting from the 1st round to have a chance of getting a knockout. I don’t think it’s going to happen, but that’s pretty much the only chance he has in this fight.
The Ward-Smith fight will be televised on BET.
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