Canelo vs. Smith

By Patrick McHugh: WBO junior middleweight champion Liam “Beefy” Smith (23-0-1, 13 KOs) realizes that he’ll be a big underdog in his fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) on September 17 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Smith doesn’t care that the odds makers have the 25-year-old Canelo as the favorite because he plans on showing them that they’re wrong. Smith says he’ll too mentally strong and too tough for Canelo when the two of them meet up in two months from now.

Canelo figures to win the WBO title to add to his collection. By selecting Smith, it gives the impression that Canelo sees him as an easy mark, because he could have selected one of the Charlo brothers or Erislandy Lara to fight for their titles.

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By Robbie Bannatyne: They say its better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know. By definition, you don’t know what you’re dealing with when faced with an unknown quantity. To American audiences, Liverpool WBO light middleweight champion Liam Smith is a book without a cover, but that’s not stopped them judging his fight with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez as a blatant mismatch for their fight on September 17.

Have we learned nothing from the cautionary tales in boxing history of the unknown quantity taking a quantum leap in class to cut down a well know champion?

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By Jaime Ortega: Saul Canelo Alvarez lately became criticized for ducking several boxers in the middleweight division. Legendary boxers like Hugo Cesar Chavez have called out Canelo publically, and degraded his boxing achievements on live shows. Canelo not only has received heat by his foes, but his own fan base feel disappointed and betrayed with his last fights.

Even though Canelo is mainly to blame for not fighting GGG, Oscar De La Hoyas Golden Boy promotions is partly responsible for dissing out what could very well be the fight of the year. In my opinion, the fight of the year is Andre Ward versus Sergei Kovalev — should be a tough war — hard to call a winner. But have no doubts Canelo versus GGG would be a titanic matchup with a quick result!

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By Dan Ambrose: WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith’s promoter Frank Warren believes he has a real chance of pulling off an upset against former WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) in their fight in two months from now on September 17 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Warren sees the 27-year-old Smith (23-0-1, 13 KOs) as the best of the Smith brothers (Paul, Callum and Stephen), and he feels that he is a natural 154lb fighter. He rates Smith as having better punching power than Canelo’s last opponent Amir Khan, who moved up in weight from the welterweight division to face Canelo at a catch-weight of 155lbs last May in Las Vegas.

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By Scott Gilfoid: Joe Gallagher, the trainer for WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith (23-0-1, 13 KOs), believes his fighter has a very good chance of pulling off the upset by beating former two division world champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (47-1-1 33 KOs) in their fight in less than three months from now on September 17 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Gallagher thinks Smith, 27, can win as long as he soundly beats Canelo in a conclusive enough way to where he can’t lose by a decision or by knocking him out. Gallagher notes that Amir Khan recently fought Canelo last May in a fight in which Khan appeared to win many of the first five rounds of the contest.

The judges gave most of those rounds to Canelo, and they had Khan trailing in the fight at the time that he was knocked out in round six.

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By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions have effectively steered their franchise fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) around a very dangerous obstacle in Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and now have the 25-year-old Mexican fighter in safer waters in challenging Liam Smith (23-0-1, 13 KOs) on September 17 on HBO pay-per-view. Golden Boy hasn’t listed the price for the Canelo-Smith fight, but you’d have to assume that it will go for $60 to $70.

There’s got to be some kind of break even mark in terms of PPV buys. My guess it will be fairly high in the $300,000 range due to Canelo getting big money for each fight. The thing is, I don’t know if Canelo-Smith is a fight that can even bring in 100,000 buys. Golden Boy will need to really market it like crazy to get fans to want to pay for this. They might need to consider bringing Smith over to do a tour of the major cities in the U.S, as well as the UK. There will surely be some kind of HBO 24/7 Canelo/Smith series to try and attract some interest.

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By Dan Ambrose: It’s now official: Saul “Canel” Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) will be challenging unbeaten WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith (23-0-1, 13 KOs) on September 17 on HBO PPV from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was expected that Canelo would take on Liam Smith rather than the dangerous/difficult 154lb champions in Jermall and Jermell Charlo, as well Erislandy Lara.

By choosing Liam Smith, Canelo appears to be looking for the path of least resistance. It doesn’t exactly make Canelo look good that he chose not to fight IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, and then turning around and facing Liam Smith rather than one of the Charlo brothers or Lara.

It’s one thing ducking Golovkin, but then another thing to duck the Charlo brothers and Lara too. It doesn’t make Canelo look good in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans in selecting Smith rather than one of those guys.

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