As skilled as Canelo is, this is boxing, and skills can take you so far in boxing. This has the potential to end up like Mikey vs Spence. I wouldn't be surprised the least bit of Smith finds a way to keep Canelo far away enough to neutralize his offense or even hit him hard enough where Canelo shells up most of the time. With that said, Canelo is a special kind of fighters and on Saturday we'll see if he beats the Physical odds. How confident are you guys that Canelo finds a way to beat Smith?
This is something I wrote in a PM to a friend asking about the fight. "The John Ryder fight is indicative of nothing, Canelo brings nothing to the table that The Gorilla does. The only reason he had as much success as he did it's because he's a Southpaw, closes the distance very well, defends well on the inside, and is a persistent body puncher. Canelo is not going to get in his grill and work the body like John did. Canelo didn't want to get too close to Kovalev, or Golovkin in the first fight. Sure he might be able to slip the jab, but he's also still tends to be flat-footed and will possibly eat a few counter hooks on the way inside, Canelo tends to be risk averse and looks for the perfect shot so he'll probably keep his distance, and if pitty patting Kovalev can stun him, so can Smith. Callum is far better at defending his body than Rocky Fielding is. This match is going to be a lot harder than people think it'll be."
Toughest fight since GGG. If Smith can keep Canelo on the outside he could rack up some rounds here. But i think once Canelo adjusts to the size, his timing and counter punching ability will break down smith towards the later rounds. I see smith meeting the same fate as his older brother Liam, going down with a wicked left hook to the liver around the 10th-11th round.
If Smith wasn't handicapped by a 3 week training camp, he'd have a good shot. And most likely am NDA regarding a rehydration clause like in the Kovalev fight.
Smith has never faced an opponent in the same stratosphere of Canelo. This is going to be a long painful night for Smith who will be drained and gasping for air late on.
Not the Groves that got in the ring that night. The fact he retired after that shows what state he was in. Listening to his interview the other day he went to hell and back just to make it to the ring.
no, smith is as orthodox and predictable as they came. i expect canelo to counter the hell out of him in the first three rounds, and then smith will fight super cautious, from that point forward its just a demolition job. Canelo ko 7-10