By Scott Gilfoid: Liam Smith (26-1-1, 14 KOs) is upset that the critics are overlooking him in his fight against WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia (29-0, 25 KOs) on July 21 on HBO World Championship Boxing and BT Sports at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Former WBO 154lb champion Smith, 29, feels that he has enough talent to get the job doe against the 21-year-old Munguia, who he feels hasn’t done a whole lot in his short four-year pro career. Smith is definitely angry that he’s viewed as the next knockout victim for the young Munguia. The boxing fans remember how easily Saul Canelo Alvarez handled Smith in stopping him in the 9th round in 2016 in Arlington, Texas. Smith couldn’t handle the punching power of the young Canelo, who was only 25-years-old at the time.
Munguia, 5’11”, is taller, younger and he hits harder than the 5’8” Canelo Alvarez. It stands to reason that if Smith couldn’t deal with the punching power of Canelo, then he probably won’t be able to handle the power of the bigger punching Munguia on July 21 when the two of them start trading. Everything that Munguia throws has major power on it. He completely mowed down Sadam Ali in knocking him down four times in their fight last May. Sadam was getting dropped every time he stood still long enough for Munguia to connect. Smith isn’t nearly as mobile as Sadam Ai, so you have to believe that he’s going to get hit with a lot of potential knockout blows.
Smith would relish the idea of beating Munguia and proving to the critics that they were wrong in picking against him. The problem is that Smith hasn’t been fighting quality opposition to prove to the critics that he has a chance of winning the fight. Smith was blown out by Saul Canelo Alvarez in nine rounds in 2016. Since that fight, Smith has had three fights against Marian Cazacu (2-40-1) and Liam Williams. None of those guys are considered talented fighters. It’s not Smith’s fault that his management chose to match him weakly. If they had put him in against a good fighter like Erislandy Lara, Jermell Charlo or Jarrett Hurd, then perhaps the critics would have had nothing to say about him. But that’s not happened though. Smith didn’t fight those guys. He fought a journeyman named Cazau with a horrible 2-40-1 record and then a badly flawed Liam Williams. Those are guys that Smith should have fought at the start of his career, not after 10 years as a pro.
“I am a little bit more hungry because a few people have written me off, so I’m going to make them eat their words,” Smith said. “It has given me a little bit more fire. I want to become a world champion again. It is winnable, but it is what a world title fight should be. I’m a challenger, on the road and it should be a tough fight.”
If Smith has a chance of winning if Munguia gets cut up the way that Liam Williams did in their first fight last year in April 2017. Munguia will be vulnerable if Smith cuts him around his eyes with an accidental head-butt or two. Aside from that, it’ll be very hard for Smith to get the victory in this fight because Munguia is bigger, stronger, younger, and a vicious body puncher. Smith doesn’t take body shots too well, and you can bet that Munguia will be targeting his body as much as possible to try and get him out of there.
The location of the Munguia vs. Smith fight on July 21 will be in Las Vegas. While Munguia isn’t from the U.S, he’ll have the boxing fans firmly on his side for the fight, as he comes from nearby Mexico and there will be a lot of his fans at ringside on the night. England is over 5000 miles away from Las Vegas, which means that there will likely be very few of Smith’s fans that will be present on the night when he climbs inside the ring on July 21.
Smith wants to recapture his WBO junior middleweight title that he had ripped away from him two years ago by Canelo Alvarez at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Smith had a simple game plan that he used for the Canelo fight. That plan was for him to come out firing on all cylinders, looking to throw 90 to 100 punches per round. It was a great plan for Smith in theory, but not such a good idea in reality. Smith came out fast and outworked Canelo in the first four rounds but then he faded out and was too tired I put up much of a fight from the 5th round on. Canelo then knocked Smith down in rounds five, seven, eight and nine. Smith was beaten more due to fatigue than he was on power. Munguia likely would lose to Canelo Alvarez as well if he fought him right now, but he would give him a lot to think about with his size and punching power. If Munguia was able to put hands on Canelo for any length of time, he would stun him the same way James Kirkland did in their fight in 2015. Munguia is more suited to fighting bigger fighters than the shorter 5’9” Smith, who doesn’t have the size to compete against the taller guys at 154.
“I will be gutted if I don’t win this fight,” Smith said. “Munguia is a good fighter. He is big for the weight and it doesn’t take a genius to see he can punch. Apart from Sadam he hasn’t fought any one of note. If you look at his record there is not one other person there where you’d say, ‘Look he has beaten, him.”
Well, if Smith doesn’t win the fight, then he always has the domestic circuit that he can return to in the UK. Heck, it’s not as if Smith ever really left it. Smith won the vacant WBO junior middleweight title beating a weak opponent named John Thompson in 2015. Instead of fighting good opposition after that, Smith milked his WBO title, beating Predrag Radosevic and Jimmy Kelly before losing the belt to Canelo. The only good fighter that Smith has ever fought during his career is Canelo, and he was beaten by him.
Smith isn’t fighting good opposition, so he can return back to fighting the poor opposition if things don’t work out well for him against Munguia. What we do know is Smith failed when he did step it up, and he’s done zero since then in terms of facing quality opposition. Smith has been spinning his wheels for the last two years facing weak opponents rather than getting back on the horse and trying again against a good fighter. You hate to see fighter throw two years away like Smith just did by not fighting good opponent after being knocked out by Canelo, but that kind of thing happens all the time. If Smith wanted to quiet his critics, he had the perfect opportunity to do so in 2017 and early 2018 by fighting talents like Jarrett Hurd, Jermell Charlo, Jermall Charlo, Demetrius Andrade and Erickson Lubin. He didn’t do that, so now he’s being written off by boxing fans as being the next knockout victim for Munguia.