Liam Smith plans on upsetting Canelo’s plans for GGG fight

By Boxing News - 09/02/2016 - Comments

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By Dan Ambrose: WBO junior middleweight champion Liam “Beefy” Smith (23-0-1, 13 KOs) has heard all the talk about Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) vs. Gennady “GGG” Golovkin fight in the future, but he plans on shutting down that talk permanently after he gives the Mexican fighter a defeat on September 17 at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Smith says he’s going to beat Canelo, shock the boxing world, and announce himself to the U.S fans with his victory.

Canelo, 26, is seen as the clear favorite in this fight, so Smith is going to need to show the odds-makers and the fans that they were wrong to see him as the underdog in this fight. Smith isn’t surprised that he’s the underdog because he realizes that many of the fans in the States have never seen him fight before.

This will be the first time for many of the fans to see him in the ring, but he figures that his style of fighting will be pleasing for the fans. Smith has a western style of fighting with the way he likes to stay in the pocket and throw body shots. He’s the worst type of opponent for Canelo in some ways, because he’s shown vulnerability to body shots and to fighters that push a fast pace like Smith typically does.

“I’m coming to fight Canelo, and you’re going to be in a massive shock,” said Smith. “This fight is me making a name for myself and establishing myself to the world of boxing not just for British fight fans. We can talk about Triple G and Canelo, but after September 17 there won’t be no talk of Triple G anymore.”

That would be a huge shock if Smith beat Canelo, because few fans are expecting that to happen. At the same time, it would undermine a big money fight because Canelo and Golovkin in the future. That fight will likely still take place even if Canelo loses to Smith, but it won’t have the magnitude that it would be if he beats Smith. A defeat for Canelo against Smith would mean that he would need to fight him in a rematch rather than moving on to other fighters like Willie Monroe Jr, Gabriel Rosado or Billy Joe Saunders for December.

If Canelo loses to Smith a second time, then his career would be pretty much finished unless his promoters at Golden Boy could make a cry that he was robbed by the judges or something to that effect. if Smith knocks Canelo out, then Golden Boy wouldn’t be able to say anything to stir up controversy to put doubts into the minds of Canelo fans. Canelo’s career as a top fighter would be pretty much finished as far as the hardcore boxing fans that follow the sport.

Canelo could still be successful though with his career if Golden Boy puts him back on his soft diet of fighting smaller, older faded fighters that are no longer any good. We’ve seen Golden Boy doing a lot of that kind of match-making for Canelo in the last two years since 2014. He’s facing smaller, older guys with limited talent and with them coming off long layoffs. Smith isn’t old, he’s not faded and he’s not coming off of a long layoff. It’s potentially a very difficult fight for Canelo that he could very well lose.

“100 percent, I like my chances, because I’m 100 percent confident I’m going to win this fight and Canelo’s the favorite to win the fight,” said Smith. “When I beat Canelo, my next fight will be Canelo again, because I know they will throw everything back. They overlooked me, and I know after September 17, the excuses are going to come. I see what’s going to happen,” said Smith.

Smith is pretty wise for him to realize what Canelo and his Team is going to do if/when he beats the red-haired fighter. Smith fully expects Golden Boy and Canelo to start making excuses about why he lost to him. What Smith isn’t saying is that Team Canelo may opt to deny they were beaten. They could say that they were robbed if the fight ends in a decision. That’s certainly a possibility. Canelo saw himself clearly beating Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara in the past in fights that easily could have gone the other way.

Canelo was so satisfied with his controversial wins over both fighters that he just moved on and didn’t want to go back and clear up the controversy and stink from those fights. It stands to reason that if Canelo thinks his wins over Trout and Lara were conclusive victories, then it’s quite possible that he’ll see his loss to Smith as a win for himself. We could then see a lot of denial and/or excuses on Canelo and Golden Boy’s part to deny that they were beaten. It would Smith as the visiting fighter going up against all that. It’ll be hard on Smith potentially to have his voice heard, and it’s quite possible that Canelo and his Team will try and whitewash their defeat by denying that they were beaten unless there’s a knockout in the fight.

“They say no one can fight at Canelo’s level because they don’t know that I can perform at that level yet,” said Smith. “This fight is going to tell you guys that I’m at that level myself. I know I’m at that level. So you’ll know who Liam Smith is come September 17th. This isn’t Canelo with Amir Khan. This has to do with me, and it’s a personal thing for me. I’ve always been told I think I’ve got a style that the American fight fans will like. There is no mixing out of my style, there’s no awkwardness. There’s no holds. There’s no negativity around me.”

It sounds like Smith plans on giving it to Canelo on September 17. If Canelo’s punches can’t deter Smith, then this fight could go badly for the Mexican fighter. It looks like Smith plans on giving Canelo no rest inside the ring in this fight, because his Plan-A is to fight hard for the full three minutes of every round. Smith does not want to give Canelo any chances for rest breaks that he needs/wants for him to be able to finish the fight.