Anthony David Benavidez vs Demetrius Andrade & Subriel Matias vs Shohjahon Ergashev - Round by Round

Yep, and I'm the one guy on this site that predicted John Ryder would work over Callum, and why did I predict that? Because styles makes fights, that's why. Not that I feel like trotting out that played out idiom, but in this case, it's very much applicable. Now, please tell me what Benavidez has in common with a short defensively sound compact southpaw with one of the best inside games in the business? Not a goddamn thing. If you stand in front of Callum Smith, you're in his line of fire and he can and most likely will hurt you. You square up like David tends to do, that could very well spell doom. How soon people forget, Callum was a beast at Super Middleweight, won the WBSS, but then clearly the weight started to become an issue. His last two matches at 168 he looked like a corpse at the weigh ins. But thus far at 175, he's looked like an absolute killer, and unlike Benavidez winning on accumulation, he's one shot sleeping mother****ers. Benavidez has been stunned several times and dropped. So it's not out of the realm of possibility that a guy with the power of Smith can put his lights out.

 

Who the hell is calling for Smith vs. Benavidez? I was responding to a poster glibly denigrating and dismissing Bivol, in kind. By glibly implying, I doubt Benavidez gets past Smith, much less Bivol. Your reading comprehension appears to be compromised.

 

Losing to an elite fighter doesn't mean you're crap, nor does struggling with a stylistic nightmare. Is Benavidez crap because he struggled with Gavril and looked terrible against Denis Douglin, while losing several rounds in the process?

 

You're not alone. Since writing this, I've flat out settled on picking Smith.