By Sean Jones: Callum Smith is ready to shock the world on Saturday night by beating the boxing legend Canelo Alvarez at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Smith wants to take Canelo’s scalp and add it to his collection.
(Photo Credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing)
The 6’3″ Callum has already beaten George Groves, John Ryder, and Rocky Fielding. If he can beat Canelo, it would be a huge coup and put him in position for a massive payday in a rematch
Callum (27-0, 19 KOs) respects what the popular former four-division world champion Canelo (53-1-2, 36 KOs) has accomplished during his 15-year-old professional career. Still, he feels he’s not a great fighter at 168 when he was fighting at 160 and 154.
Canelo is too short, his reach too limited, and his mobility not what it needs to be for him to be a great super middleweight.
Callum sees Canelo as someone that has overreached what his body will allow him to do, and he’s doing to pay for it on Saturday night in taking a loss to Callum.
Alvarez, 30, has hit his ceiling, and he’s not going to be able to beat someone as big as Smith without landing a lucky punch or winning a controversial decision.
Smith is going to show whether Canelo belongs at 168 or not on Saturday night. If Canelo can beat Smith without controversy and do it convincingly, it would mean that Alvarez does belong.
With that said, it still doesn’t mean that Canelo will beat the two best super middleweights in Caleb Plant and David Benavidez. Those two are the true best in this writer’s view, and not Callum Smith.
Callum Smith ready to dethrone the legend
“When you look at guys with the potential to beat Canelo Alvarez, Callum Smith is at the top of that list,” said Eddie Hearn. “This fight is coming at a great time for Callum Smith.
“He wants to throw himself into the deep end, and he wants to see how good he is. It will take the greatest performance of his career to dethrone the legend of Canelo Alvarez.”
Hearn isn’t right about the Canelo fight coming at the perfect time for Smith because he’s coming off a bad performance against John Ryder.
The best possible time for Callum to have fought Canelo was after his win over George Groves in 2018 or after his first-round knockout victory over Rocky Fielding in 2015.
Smith is in the prime of his career, and he can win this fight against Canelo if he uses the right game plan.
The five ways to beat Canelo:
- Stay on the outside and jab
- Pressure him
- Throw a lot of punches per round
- Don’t let Canelo get on the inside
- No rest breaks
The best ways from that list for Smit to use to beat Canelo would be to outwork him and not let him get his badly needed rest breaks.
Hearn: This is Callum’s best chance to build his legacy
“If this opportunity doesn’t come around for Callum, what is the next opportunity? So sometimes you have to grab it with both hands,” said Hearn. “This is it. This is his best chance of winning that legacy moment by beating a pound-for-pound #1,” said Hearn.
“He was offered the same money to fight easier fights. He said, ‘No, I want Callum Smith, I want the #1. It’s remarkable, and that’s so good for boxing. We went straight in to make this fight. There wasn’t a lot of time. The chips are down, our backs are against the wall, and we got to keep the sport moving,’ said Hearn.
A win over Canelo Alvarez would build Smith’s legacy overnight, making him an immediate start. Even if Smith’s career nosedive after beating Canelo, he can at least have that 15 minutes of fame that he would get.
The money alone that Smith, 30, will get in a rematch with Canelo would be tremendous, and who knows? If they split two fights, Canelo will likely want to face Smith a third time.
With Callum, there’s no bad blood with him compared to Gennady Golovkin, but that’s the reason Canelo isn’t looking in GGG’s direction.
I think it’s more of a case of Canelo realizing that Golovkin has stopped trying to accomplish things and is just waiting around for a payday fight against him before retiring.
Smith isn’t the type to do that. He wants to face the best, and he would likely keep taking risks after he faces Canelo. For that reason, Smit’s chances of getting a second and third fight after better than GGG’s.
Callum Smith: I’m a better fighter than Canelo at 168
“I just think at 168, I’m the better fighter, and I think I’ll prove it December 19th,” said Smith.
“I chose Callum Smith because he’s ranked #1 in the 168-lb division, and in the end, that’ what I want,” said Canelo. ”
It very well could be true that the 6’3″ Callum Smith is a better fighter at 168 than Canelo, and it wouldn’t be a shock. If you take a sprinter and have him race and race a high-caliber 800-meter runner, they’re not going to be able to compete. They’re not designed for that kind of racing.
It may be that Canelo isn’t built to beat the top rung of the 168-pound division because of his lack of height and reach. Just because Canelo has bulked up and moved up to 168 doesn’t mean that he’s designed to fight in that weight class.
You can say the same thing about Canelo in terms of his ability to hang with the top rung at 175. Yeah, Canelo can beat an old-timer like Sergey Kovalev, but it would be a disaster if he got in the ring with Artur Beterbiev or Dmitry Bivol.
Those guys are not only big, but they’re talented, and they’re designed physically to fight in the 175lb division.
It’s no accident that Canelo chose not to fight either of those two talents when he moved up to light heavyweight to go after a title. Canelo picked the old-timer Kovalev, 37, and even then, he still struggled to beat him.