By Jim Dower: Former WBO junior middleweight champion Liam “Beefy” Smith (25-1-1, 14 KOs) overcame a bad start to defeat the previously unbeaten Liam Williams (16-1-1, 11 KOs) by a 9th round TKO on Saturday night in their fight for the vacant WBO interim junior middleweight title at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Both fighters were badly cut. Williams was cut in round 9.
Smith suffered a cut over his right eye in round 3 from a punch from Williams.
Smith, 28, was unable to win the interim WBO title due to him having missed the weight at Friday’s weigh-in. Smith weighed in 1 ½ pounds over the 154 lb. limit at 155 ½ pounds.
The fight was halted after the 9th round due to the 24-year-old Williams having suffered a bad cut on the side of his right eye. Williams’ trainer Gary Lockett chose to pull him out of the fight rather than letting it continue. It was too much blood leaking from the cut for the fight to have been allowed to have continued. At the time of the stoppage, Williams was ahead on all three of the judges’ scorecards at the time of the stoppage.
Boxing News 24 had Williams winning 7 rounds to 2 at the time of the stoppage. However, Smith was coming on from the 8th round, and he seemed to be taking over the fight. Williams looked exhausted from the fast pace of the fight, and the constant pressure that Smith was putting him under. Ultimately, Smith’s body shots in the early rounds may have taken their toll on Williams.
“I knew I was getting to him,” said Smith after the fight about Williams. “I think Gary Lockett made the right decision. I would have stopped him 100 percent in the next round if the fight had continued,” said Smith.
Williams looked like he was not going to be able to fight much longer even before he was cut. He was exhausted from the body shots that Smith was hitting him with and the uppercuts. The cut was more of a finisher than anything. If Williams had come out for the 10th, he would have been under withering fire and likely would have been stopped in the round.
“We’re going to try and do it again,” said Frank Warren.
Smith might want to wait a while before he gives Williams a rematch, as there’s the potential for him to fight for the full title. WBO junior middleweight champion Saul Canelo Alvarez is expected to vacate his WBO title now that’s moved up to the 160 lb. division. Smith could then possibly face #1 WBO Miguel Cotto for the vacant WBO 154lb title. That would be a big money fight for Smith to face a huge star like Cotto. If Smith can get that fight, then he should grab it with both hands. The rematch with Williams will always be there, but fighting Cotto is a once in a lifetime opportunity that Smith needs to take if there’s a chance to get that fight.
Williams looked very sharp tonight. He was clearly the faster fighter of the two as far as hand speed goes. Williams was catching Smith with big left hooks and right hands in the first 5 rounds of the fight. Smith was walking into the shots with his guard, and not able to fire back with anything that was hard enough to keep Williams off of him. Williams was getting away with lot of forearms to the face. He was also using his shoulder quite a bit to push Smith back. That was something that referee Terry O’Connor warned Williams about, but he kept doing that for much of the fight.
Williams was throwing an enormous amount of punches from round 3, as he was trying to get Smith to stop coming forward. At the time, it looked like Williams was in good enough shape to continue to keep throwing shots at a high volume.
Beginning in round 6, Smith started to get back into the fight with his short uppercuts to the head well-placed body shots. Smith, 28, didn’t land a lot of punches in the round, but he showed that he was finally starting to get untracked in the fight.
In round 7, Smith landed a monstrous right hand to the head of Williams that he took with full force. Williams looked fine after taking the shot, but he was no longer firing back with the same power with his own punches. Williams lost the snap on his shots in this round, and he seemed to be gassing badly. The ringside doctor examined Smith’s cut during the round after being prompted by referee Terry O’Connor. The doctor let Smith continue fighting despite his right eye looking a mess. The cut had gotten much worse during the 7th from the many shots that Smith was getting hit with.
Williams came back strong in round 8 to win the round based on his high work rate. Williams threw a lot of shots and connected with most of them. The shots didn’t have the same power on them that they had earlier in the fight. Williams might have made a mistake in throwing so many shots in this round, because he appeared to punch himself out. In the last part of the round, Smith came on strong in landing some hard right hands to the head and lefts to the body. Smith hit Williams with a right hand after the bell. Williams wasn’t too happy about it and the two of them had words.
At the start of round 9, referee Terry O’Connor spoke to both fighters at the center of the ring in what appeared to be a lecture about him wanting them to keep things clean. Williams initially started the round looking good in throwing some nice shots. However, Smith took over completely after getting hit with a big left hook to the head from Williams. The shot caused Smith to speed up his game and attack Williams all out. Smith looked a little like Gennady Golovkin the way he was overwhelming Williams shots. He wasn’t holding back anything in throwing a ton of hard punches to the head and body. Late in the round, Williams suffered a bad cut over his right eye.
Smith accidently head-butted Williams right after the cut opened, causing him to wince in pain as the blood poured from the cut. Smith then landed a huge uppercut to the head of Williams that snapped his head back, making him to back up to the ropes. The round ended with Smith teeing off on a tired and hurt Williams.
All in all, it was a great fight to watch. It’s too bad that Williams suffered the cut because it would have been interesting to see how well he would have done in the last 3 rounds of the fight. In looking at how tired Williams was, it’s questionable whether he would have made it through the next round. He was exhausted from the pressure that Smith was putting on him. The body shots that Smith was hitting Williams with in the last 2 rounds seemed to drain him like a battery. Williams had nothing left. He wasn’t ready to fight another 3 rounds at the pace that Smith was forcing him to fight. It was experience for Smith that won him the fight. He held back with his shots until the later rounds, and then poured it on against a very tired and depleted Williams, who clearly wasn’t ready for Smith to turn up the heat on