Smith: No time for tune-ups
CALLUM SMITH wants to dive straight back in at the deep end and sort out a supermiddleweight unification fight against David Benavidez or Caleb Plant.
The Scouser, 30, expects to have been out of the ring for around a year by the time he returns to action and, under normal circumstances, he’d have liked to have had a tune-up first.
But he knows time is of the essence at this stage of his career and that’s why he is itching for a chance to put his WBA title on the line against WBC champ Benavidez or IBF top dog Plant.
Smith, whose last defence was against John Ryder in November, said: “It’s hard, it’s a Catch-22. It’s looking like I could be close to, if not fully, 12 months out of the ring.
“And if I’d had that time out due to having a hand operation or something like that, then you’d want a tuneup fight to jump back in with.
“But the way this has happened, we’ve all kind of had a year out of our careers and we can’t really afford to waste another six months having a tune-up fight and then going into another fight.
Contention
“I’m not too sure, but I do think you’ll see people trying to make up for lost time. If I was offered a big fight next, I’d take it – I wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, I want a tune-up first’.
“A lot of people will want to just get right back in there with the best fight possible.”
Smith has been tipped to face Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in September after Billy Joe Saunders last week took himself out of contention for the money-spinning fight.
But, while Smith would love to meet Canelo or Saunders down the line, he knows Benavides or Plant are more likely options for now.
He added: “After becoming world champion, I set myself new goals and one of those was to be unified champion.
“If Canelo is tied up, I will look to Plant or Benavides, and hopefully our teams can come to an agreement and we can get involved with the big fights, which I don’t think anyone wants to avoid.
“After this lay-off, we all just want to get involved in the big fights now.”