CALLUM SMITH OUTCLASSED BY CANELO
Callum handed a brutal lesson by Canelo
There could have been no more appropriate venue for the biggest fight of Callum Smith’s life than the Alamodome. Like Jim Bowie and his outnumbered heroes at the fort in San Antonio from which this stadium took its name, the youngest of Liverpool’s four boxing brothers fought as if to the last man.
All the way to inevitable defeat at Mexican hands.
When Bowie’s mother was told of her legendary son’s death as the Alamo fell to the troops of General Santa Anna, she said: ‘For sure my Jim wasn’t shot in the back.’ Mrs Smith can feel proud, too, of her boy reaching the final bell against a massively superior Mexican force.
Smith’s back was against the ropes all Saturday night, but he refused to go down under relentless fire as Canelo Alvarez stripped away his world super-middleweight title.
The outcome was never in doubt. Nor Smith’s defiance. Canelo kept coming. Smith’s rearguard action kept him going, injured, long after all hope was lost and his corner threatened to pull him out of combat at the end of the ninth round.
The cards told a tale of virtual massacre. Two judges scored it 119-109 and for what its worth through the fish- eye lens of television I, too, could give Smith no more than one round. The sympathetic third man saw it 117-111.
Callum is finally admitting the time has come to move up to the light-heavyweight division which fits his natural size. Canelo plans on beating up Billy Joe Saunders among others to become the undisputed world champion at 168lbs, while fitting in his long-awaited trilogy fight with Gennady Golovkin along the way.
Smith had come into this weekend’s fight six inches the taller, anything up to a rehydrated stone heavier and brandishing a huge reach.
Those advantages which he believed would overpower the No 1 pound-for-pound boxer on the planet proved barely sufficient for him to survive the full 12 rounds.
Canelo is not only a Mexican warrior but a technocrat at cutting off the ring so as to corner larger quarries as he shuttles between the four weight divisions at which he boasts world titles. he delivered a masterclass to Callum, a reminder to all pretenders that, while size matters, genius counts for far more. Smith manfully acknowledged the difference in class — ‘he does things you don’t expect no matter how many times you’ve studied him’ — and nobly preferred not to make an excuse for his ‘disappointing night’.
But by the end there was a vivid red swelling around his left biceps which promoter eddie hearn suggested came from a tearing of that muscle during the fight.
That may have resulted from the number of power shots landed by the 5ft 9in Canelo, some aimed deliberately at his upper arms.
That was a tactic famously used by rocky Marciano to bring down the guard of heavyweights much bigger than himself so he could connect with knockout punches to their chins.
It looks to be part of the Alvarez armoury at his current weight along with his own bull- like strength, quick hands and cleverly varied elusive movement as he comes inside his taller opponents’ jabs to unload heavy punches to body and head.
Now in possession of the WBA, WBC and ring magazine supermiddleweight belts, Canelo says he ‘would love’ to box in London for Saunders’ WBO title. And with the pressure growing in America for him to take that third fight with Golovkin, who notched an impressive knockout win over his mandatory world middleweight championship contender Kamil Szeremeta on Friday night, he adds: ‘If he wants that fight, I don’t duck anyone.’
With the US television audience unlikely to hold up for yet another thrashing of a British boxer they hardly know — Smith and his elder brother Liam are among six such victims already — Canelo may be obliged to meet Triple G rather than Saunders next when he returns to Las Vegas for his traditional Cinco de Mayo Mexican holiday weekend fight next spring.
As for Callum, if his injury proves to be as serious as hearn fears, it will be six months at least before we know what the future holds for Mrs Smith’s youngest.