Liam Smith wants Amir Khan fight in September

By Boxing News - 05/10/2016 - Comments

Image: Liam Smith wants Amir Khan fight in SeptemberBy Scott Gilfoid: With Amir Khan having been knocked out in a horrible way last Saturday night, WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith (22-0-1, 12 KOs) must smell blood in the water because he’s circling Khan and showing a lot of interest in wanting to get a piece of him at a low point in his career.

Smith, 27, says he’d like to fight Khan later this year in September after he takes care of his voluntary defense against little known fringe contender Predrag Radosevic (30-1, 11 KOs) in their fight on June 4 at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, UK. This will be another voluntary defense for Smith, and arguably a tiny step up from his last defense against Jimmy Kelly last December.

Smith figures that Khan will have a hard time taking off the muscle he put on for the Canelo fight to get back down to 147. Smith thinks Khan will wind up in the 154lb division and he’d love to fight him if possible.

“I think a fight with Amir Khan is now more realistic after what happened at the weekend,” Smith said to sportinglife. “I’ve been sparring him and I know he’s put muscle on so it will be hard for him to shed it and go back down to 147lbs. So I’ll wait to see what he wants to do – but it’s interesting times. I’m definitely looking for a massive fight in September as I’m very confident of beating Radosevic on June 4.”

You can’t blame Smith for wanting to fight Khan because what other options does Smith have for a big payday fight? It’s not as if he’s going to get a fight against a big name in the UK at 154, because there are none in that weight class. There’s none in the middleweight division either unless you count Billy Joe Saunders and Chris Eubank Jr. as big fights. Smith is in a bad position right now because there’s no one with a big enough name at 154 and 160 to fight him.

About the only thing Smith can do is call out British welterweights like Khan and Kell Brook and hope they’ll show enough interest in moving up to 154 to fight him. I don’t know why they would though. There’s more money for Brook and Khan to fight guys at 147 than moving up to fight an obscure fighter like Smith, who some boxing fans see as little more than a paper champion at this point in his career.

I don’t see Smith getting a big fight in 2016. He should try and fight someone good like Demetrius Andrade to build his name the proper way by fighting the best rather than just looking for a big payday.