Calum Smith's Performance

Hopefully it's just a case of ring rust.

Biggest shock of the weekend's fights. Perhaps Skogland's a little trickier than advertised. He was stopped as an amateur so I thought this fight was going to serve as a highlight reel KO to intro Callum to the uninitiated.

On the back of that performance, Smith doesn't get past the next stage.

On the other hand, I felt Eubank was going to go life and death with Yildrim and Groves would struggle with a motivated Cox but who knows now. I don't trust my gut after Smith's terrible performance.

He should have won easily. I really thought Callum would be the first Smith to actually belong at world level. Not so sure now.

He was considered the real no. 1 seed by some going into this. That's a distant memory now. The only way to change that is to raise his game considerably, I still hope he can.

 

Pretty much everything you said about Eubank regarding opponents you can say for Smith to be honest. Taking the size off the table id say Eubank has fought people closer to smiths style than Smith has fought to his. Smiths CV is very weak too.

Power and size are Smith advantages but if he is throwing 1 punch to Eubanks 5 then he is in for a long night.

 

I agree, his CV isn't that impressive up to now. Not sure how Skoglund will turn out in the long run or whether that will go down as a big win but you're right.

Eubank might turn out to be a killer at 168 & it could turn out i'm talking tripe again. I just think the Skoglund fight was a massive learning fight for Callum, and I feel Eubank is going to have a similar learning experience in his fight too.

 

Smiths beat better opponents than Eubank. At Euro level or above he's beat Sjelovka, Fielding, Rebrasse. The very faded Arthur Abraham Eubank beat is properly not Euro level anymore, so that only leaves British level or below fighters and at 160ibs

 

Yeah Blackwell ktfo Ryder and Fielding only beat him by Robbery.

King Arthur has only lost 1 time in the last 4 or 5 years to Gilberto and has beaten many world/euro level guys on the way.

Id back Renold Quinlan to beat all 3, obviously I would back Chudinov too and probably Spike. Heck I'd back Tom Doran to beat Fielding.

 

In saying that resumes don't win fights and Smith is a deserved favourite, I think he is all wrong for Groves and would ko him at some stage, think him vs Jr is a epic match up.

 

It is only a learning fight if he actually learns from it. From what I saw the other night he has an awful lot to learn in a very short time, and I doubt he can do it. In a way Smith is lucky to have the softer side of the draw, but will get to the final to find himself levels below whoever he faces there (likely GG for me).

That said it all depends how much of a war the GG v Jr semi final will be, and how long they have to recover from it. That is Smiths realistic only shout, that the others leave it all in the semi final.

 

Thts presuming the GG and Jnr win their fights first!

 

Of course.

That said if GG can't beat Cox he proberbly needs to retire. Jr may have a much tougher fight as the Turk fella seems a bit of a dark horse.

 

Yeah Jr couldbe in a real war from what i have seem of this guy. Granted its not much but he seem to be a come forward and walk through shots kind of guy. Loves working on the inside so this could be a really good fight!

 

I thought he did well to win in the end. He should win the semi against winner of brant v brahmer. Final will be a 50/50 fight. I think groves will win quarter final. Not sure about eubank fight. Or other semi final winner.

 

Watched his fight with periban last night mate. Yildrum looks a tricky fight. Cuts the ring off very well. Quite quick on his feet. Plus very good at making guys work. Hes a bit of a lidl version of golovkin without the tremendous offence. Ha ha so not like him at all really. Gameplan looks to be getting in range and forcing guys to work...trying to outlast them before coming on strong later...he gets guys working harder than they want to be working he does it by going into range and let guys work him...absorbs it keeps coming forward till it becomes hard to keep him off. Looks like he can take a good shellacking...its exactly what he,ll get for the first five/six rounds against eubank. Eubank will hit him with the kitchen sink...will be interesting if hes still in their and not broken down too much after 6 or 7 rounds. Cause hes a bit of a unit the bigger man and can punch a bit. Although eubanks stamina looks pretty good. It becomes hard for anyone when your forced to work hard 3 minutes for every round. Especially if yildrum can keep his half decent power. A boxer good on their feet will beat yildrum easy. But eubanks not great on his feet. He ll be forced to fight yildrums fight. Will come down to if eubank can break him down enough in them first five or six rounds. I think he will tbh.

Just going off the periban fight. But imagine yildrum only really has one way of fighting by the looks of it. Looking forward to it.

 

Good post mate. By the sounds of it, Yildirim's trainer doesn't respect Eubank's power so I expect Yildirim to just keep marching onto him. Eubank won every round against Abraham with his punch output, but he did hit a lot of gloves and arms. I don't think he's going to hurt this fella. They're effectively 2 weight classes apart and has we know, that doesn't always work out well for the smaller fighter. Eubank can't afford to get drawn into Cleverly style up close bust up. Has @moog has mentioned, Eubank does take big breathers during each round, nonchalantly walking round the ring and I don't think Yildirim will ease off. It's going to be interesting.

 

B

Not a great performance but he made some adjustments against an underrated and undefeated fighter in Skogland in the later part of the fight. Smith has received a lot criticism for his tendency to fade and coast in fights when he fails to bomb the guy out early. Well.. In the biggest fight of his career he dug deep late and made some nice adjustments.