Liam Smith: Canelo will be embarrassed after I beat him

By Boxing News - 08/26/2016 - Comments

Image: Liam Smith: Canelo will be embarrassed after I beat him

By Dan Ambrose: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) is the favorite to defeat unbeaten WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith (23-0-1, 13 KOs) on September 17 on HBO PPV, but Smith believes he’s going to defeat Canelo and embarrass him with his victory. Smith is amused that Canelo has been talking this week about wanting to fight Manny Pacquiao, because he feels he’s going to give him a big fat loss next month in their fight at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Smith says that after he defeats Canelo, they’re going to look to have a rematch with him straightaway. Smith expects the money he’ll be offered will be a lot, and that they’ll be thinking up excuses to try and explain why they lost.

Golden Boy Promotions would be crazy not to try and lock Smith into a rematch if he beats Canelo, because if he’s able to get away with a win over him without them trying to avenge it, Canelo’s stock is going to drop off dramatically in the boxing world. Losing to Floyd Mayweather Jr. is one thing, but losing to Liam Smith.

I don’t think Canelo’s loyal following of fans will be able to forgive him for that. The only way I can see Canelo getting away with losing toe Smith and not avenging the loss is if his fans weren’t following that particular fight. Canelo’s fans that do see his fight against Smith and see him lose, they’re going to know the truth.

Golden Boy can try and do damage control by coming up with an excuse of some kind such as Canelo being injured, but I don’t know if that’s going to work. Injury excuses have been overused in the boxing world, so it’s not something that will fly the fans if Smith gets Canelo a beating and wins the fight.

“When I beat Canelo, the next fight would be a rematch,” said Smith to fightnews.com. “I’ll beat Canelo and they’re going to offer as much money as they want to put the record straight and come up with every excuse in the book. You know, I’ve just told people on social media, he’s saying he’d love to fight Pacquiao. It’s embarrassing they’re talking about Canelo-Pacquiao. They’re going to be very embarrassed when I beat them in September.”

It’s unclear how much money Smith is getting for the Canelo fight this time around, but he can expect to get a lot more in a second fight against him.

It’s hard to know for sure whether Canelo would bother fighting Smith a second time. Canelo wasn’t beating the drum loudly for a rematch against Floyd Mayweather Jr. after he lost to him three years ago. Canelo also wasn’t rushing to clear up the controversy of his wins over Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout, both of which appeared to beat Canelo in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans.

If Canelo wasn’t eager to fight Lara, Trout and Mayweather again, then you can specualate that he won’t try and get a rematch with Liam Smith if he loses to the British fighter on September 17. It might be smarter for Canelo to never fight Smith a second time if he gets beaten by him, because a second defeat would be the kis of death. He wouldn’t be able to come back from a second defeat to Smith. If Canelo gets beaten by Smith next month, then Golden Boy can try and whitewash it by saying that he was injured or that he was robbed or something. But if Canelo fights Smith and loses for a second time, then it’ll be academic at that point. There will no excuses that could potentially work for Canelo, because it would clear at that point.

Canelo had better hope that he doesn’t lose to Smith, because this is supposed to be a slam dunk win for the Mexican fighter. Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions have scouted out Smith and they see him as a guy that Canelo can’t lose to. But being that the brain trust at Golden Boy isn’t infallible, they could have unknowingly made a mistake by matching Canelo with Smith. We’re going to find out next month whether Golden Boy blew it or not by them matching Canelo against Smith.

It will be kind of funny if Canelo gets whipped by Smith, because Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya has been talking this week about him being the replacement for Floyd Mayweather Jr as the No.1 fighter in boxing. I don’t know how De La Hoya will be able to continue to use that line with a straight face if Canelo gets beaten by Smith, because it will be clear at that point that he’s not the replacement. Instead of Canelo being the replacement for Mayweather, it’ll be someone else like Gennady GGG Golovkin.