By Eric Baldwin: WBO junior middleweight champion Liam “Beefy” Smith (23-0-1, 13 KOs) can’t wait until he gets inside the ring with former two division world champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) on Saturday night so that he can beat him and show that the doubters/critics were wrong about him all this time.
Smith just wants the many boxing fans who gave him no chance in this fight to give him his kudos after he defeats Canelo. Whether Smith will be given credit or not is the big question. What will likely play out is a situation where the critics will turn their laser sights on Canelo, and discredit him the same way they did after his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013. Instead of Mayweather getting full credit for beating a guy much younger, bigger and stronger than him, the critics skewered Canelo in saying he was just a hyped up fighter who won his fights based on weight advantage over his smaller opponents.
It would be a huge shock to the boxing world if Smith takes down Canelo and sends him to his second career loss. It bad a bad blow to Golden Boy Promotions’ flagship fighter Canelo, because he’s their top money maker fighter, he’s like an oil well right now for them. If Canelo gets beaten by Smith, he might stop producing black gold for Golden Boy. The boxing public is fickle. They might choose to stop following Canelo.
The fans were still willing to follow Canelo after he was clowned by Mayweather, because there was no shame in a loss to him. The fans even continued to follow Canelo after his controversial wins over Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara. But if Canelo loses to Liam Smith without being given another controversial decision win, it’ll be bad news for Canelo, because the boxing fans will have seen the fight and they could stop following him.
“All I can say is wait and see what happens on Saturday,” said Smith. “Make sure you admit you were wrong and wrote me off without properly judging me or watching my fights. When I turn up on Saturday and put the performance in that I know I have in me then you will realize that Liam Smith is a very, very good fighter.”
A large crowd is expected to turn up for the fight at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. They’ll be giving Canelo support for every punch he throws in the fight. The judges will have to be really professional for them not to be influenced by the crowd noise for Canelo. It sounds like Smith is going to make sure the judges have no confusion when it comes to scoring the fight correctly and giving the win to the correct fighter.
It’s good for Smith’s sake that he isn’t losing his confidence at being such an underdog for the fight. Instead of getting intimidated at being perceived as the underdog, Smith is very confident and wants to go out and prove everyone wrong by showing him how good he is. If it turns out that Smith is good as he thinks he is, then Canelo is going to have a really hard time on Saturday night. Canelo will need to find some way of winning the fight.
The reason why the boxing fans don’t feel that Smith is going to win is because many of them have never seen him fight before. All they know him from is the news from Golden Boy announcing the fight. Smith isn’t an American and he’s not someone that has traveled to the U.S like some fighters do.
“He isn’t out of this world. He’s not the best defensive fighter in the world; he’s vulnerable when he opens up,” said Smith. “It will take a good fighter to exploit any weaknesses he has but I am confident I am that fighter.”
Canelo does leave himself open to getting hit because he likes to throw a lot of hooks to the body. When Canelo lowers his head to throw his power shots, he’s there to be hit. The main reason why Canelo doesn’t get more than he does is because he’s not been fighting good opposition since his fight against Mayweather several years ago.
This fight is going to come down to which of them has had the best preparation in getting ready for this match. Canelo has a very good training team. However, their tactics aren’t always good. If Canelo doesn’t have a great game plan for this fight, then Smith can take over the fight and possibly beat him on the inside with his ferocious body punching. Canelo says he’s happy that Smith has a fighting style that is aggressive. Whether Canelo will keep saying that once the fight becomes a grueling affair is the big question.
This should be a great fight if Canelo chooses to stay in the pocket and fight Smith, because I think Smith is going to be looking to go to war with Canelo from start to finish. Canelo says he’s glad that Smith is an aggressive fighter, but we’ll see if that’s the case on Saturday night.
The Canelo vs. Smith fight will be televised on HBO pay-per-view from the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The co-feature bout will be Willie Monroe Jr. vs. Gabriel Rosado. The winner of that fight is expected to fight Canelo either in December or May of next year.
“They overlooked me, and I know after September 17, the excuses are going to come,” said Smith.
It does seem like Canelo has overlooked Smith. When you hear Canelo talking about a fight against Gennady Golovkin and the winner of the Willie Monroe Jr. vs. Gabriel Rosado fight, it gives you a pretty good indication that he’s totally overlooked Smith. It’s not just Canelo. His promoter Oscar De La Hoya and other people with Golden Boy are mapping out Canelo’s future, as if a win over Smith is in the bag. That’s a mistake.
The last thing that Canelo should be doing is looking past Smith, because he doesn’t have the kind of talent to do that. Canelo talks big like he’s done a lot with his career, but the reality is, he’s not. The fighters that Canelo has beaten have largely older fighters and lesser guys. Canelo has beaten some well-known former world champions like Shane Mosley, Kermit Cintron, and Miguel Cotto, but he got those fights late in their careers when they were older and no longer top level fighters.
If Smith can beat Canelo, it would be a tremendous accomplishment, because he would have done it in front of Canelo’s own fans in a card that is promoted by Canelo’s promoters. Smith is going to be out there on his own in front of what could wind up being 60,000 Canelo fans on Saturday night. That’s going to be tough for Smith, because he’ll need to ignore those fans and make sure that he fights hard enough to win the rounds.
“I’m the champion…I hope they’ll respect that I’m champion and be fair,” said Smith.
Canelo might as well be the champion and Smith the challenger, but this is Canelo’s show on Saturday. The fans will be his, and the fact that the fight is on HBO pay-per-view is because of Canelo. Smith is really up against it in this fight.