By Scott Gilfoid: After the beating he took from WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward last Saturday night in their catch-weight fight at 172 pounds, Paul Smith’s future is in doubt. Smith’s trainer Joe Gallagher wants him to retire from boxing at this point, as he feels like the 32-year-old Smith has nothing else left to prove.
Paul Smith has just been involved with three consecutive big fights against Ward and Arthur Abraham [twice], and there’s really not much else Smith can do at this point other than hang around and fight domestic level opposition.
If Smith does retire, he’ll at least have fought opposition at the upper rungs of the 168lb division, even if he lost each time he fought the best. What it basically comes down to is Smith likely never getting another world title fight for the remainder of his career.
Unless Smith is satisfied just facing domestic level opposition, he’s better off retiring, because the chances of him getting another inflated ranking like the one that he previously had in order to get two cracks at the WBO title against Arthur Abraham are extremely remote. I mean, it’s not impossible though, because I would have never in million years figured that Smith would get a top 10 ranking based on fluff victories over the likes of Tony Dodson, Tony Quigley, David Sarabia, Jamie Ambler and Tommy Tolan.
The IBF clearly dropped the ball in giving Smith a high ranking based off of those victories over incredibly mediocre opposition. But it was on Abraham and his promoters at Sauerland Events for giving Smith the shot at a world title, and then giving a rematch. It was baffling and made no sense at all, other than being seen as a title milking move by Abraham to keep him holding the WBO belt as long as possible. One way of making that happen is by fighting weak opposition.
“I’ve advised Paul now that I think he should call it a day,” Gallagher said to Skysports.com. “He’s got nothing left to prove, nothing else to achieve in the game. He’s challenged for a world title and he’s just fought one of the best pound-for-pound fighters out there. There’s not much left for him to do.”
Yeah, there’s really nothing left for Smith at this point. I mean, he can hang around and be an opponent for the younger guys like Rocky Fielding, but that’s about it as far as I’m concerned. Smith does have good right hand power, but he’s not able to throw with major power unless he loads up with his shots, and his left hand is nothing special. But Smith’s biggest problem is his poor defensive skills.
It’s too easy to hit him, and he’s slow. As fat and as out of shape as Smith was in his last fight against Ward, you have to wonder whether he can still make weight at 168 without struggling.
“He’s got a good job there at Sky and he’s a cracking pundit. I think he should do that,” Gallagher said. ”I only wish that I’d trained him as a professional from day one because I definitely would have made him a world champion.”
I don’t agree at all with what Gallagher said about him being able to turn Smith into a world champion if he trained him from day one. I think we’d have gotten the same Smith as we see now if Gallagher had been there by his side from day one.
You’ve got to have the talent to begin with to be a world champion, and I don’t see Smith as having that kind of talent. To me, Smith is more of a domestic level fighter rather than a top guy that’s capable of winning a world title under any circumstances.
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