Has your opinion of Callum Smith changed after beating Groves?

I think the common theme with Callum is that he always brings his A Game for the bigger opponents. Fielding and Groves. Seems like he can’t get himself up for the lesser names like Skoglund and Holzken

 

Yes he's better than i thought.

 

No , ive always thought he was very talented.

No one has beat Groves like that before ( from 1st bell to knockout).

And yes that also means you Mr 80,000

 

First time I seen him I thought he was gona be an excellent fighter. Then it felt like we had to wait a long time for the step up and I didn't give him a lot of thought.

I'm not surprised where he is now, and that's no.1 in the division for me. There's no question his size has played a huge part in getting there. But you'd be a fool not to respect his fundamentals and heavy hands, which are very good. All those attributes together make one hell of a SMW. A monster who will reign as long as he stays there.

 

Yeah rate him a bit higher you can't not really can you

 

Not really. His 2 previous fights where poor and I personally thought groves was doing the better work and ultimately Smith was just to big and I thought his defence wasn't up to much.

He's a monster at the weight, how good do you think he would be at higher weights?

All the best to him and I'll be supporting him now but some people make out he put on a masterclass, and as I said I though groves was doing the better work and got caught of a man much bigger.

 

I think the main thing is that it validates his power, which had taken a bit of a credibility knock after his last two fights.

He clearly hits hard, which along with his ridiculous size for 168, solid skills, and apparently decent chin make him a very difficult proposition for anyone at the weight.

He will probably need to improve to become a breakout star. I think the one-paced criticism is valid, and he seems to lack intensity even in the Groves fight. Based on his last few fights I could see him dropping a decision to a spoiler type on the wrong night.

Fair play to him though, he’s won the WBSS, ring title, and has the platform to take it to the next level. Some fighters raise their game when they win a title, so he may grow even further from here. He seems a decent bloke but isn’t dripping with charisma, so he may need the right opponents to elevate him to proper stardom.

 

A couple of people mention Smith being one paced and you know what he is 99% of the time but you notice him go through the gears when he hurts his opponent and that's the most important thing. Froch, Ward were exactly the same. Too often opponents who go through the gears outside of when they hurt an opponent are the ones who don't keep thier shape and are vulnerable to be knocked out (Groves and Khan are the perfect examples).

 

I didn`t know Smith could hit that hard, his stock just went up compared to Eubank Jr and pretty much lowers Eubank`s stock even more.

 

I think it really is this

English title vs Mendy KO 1
British title vs Fielding KO 1
EBU title vs Mahoumadi KO 1
WBSS, WBA, Ring etc vs Groves KO 7

 

Not really. Like everyone you,ve got to base it on his CV. Tbh he's made hard work of guys he should have been beating easier if he's as good as everyone says. Don't want to be negative cause he deserves big credit for last night. Both him and Joe. At the end of the day tho....groves had big question marks going into the fight.

Because he's won tho...he's getting the hyperbole treatment atm and anyone that speaks up against it looks like unfair negativity on the back of a very positive night for him.

The best thing he's got going for him is he's an Eddie hearn fighter. Now he's a belt holder....Eddie will keep him away from problematic styles. Anyone that can get the better of him from the outside will cause him problems tho. Groves kind of did slightly...the problem was with the reach disadvantage he had to work too hard to do it also had to enter into the danger zone. The tactics that have been applauded last night are still the same tactics that have been slated many times before. Guys will beat smith to the punch....when smiths forced to come out of his shell the tactics will get exposed again. Tbf its perfect tactics for smith due to his unbelievable size. But the tactics are limited. Their negative/spoiler tactics. But there will be guys that put smith on the back foot or beat him to the punch without leaving themselves exposed. Groves reach dictated he was always in that danger zone. You won't have to match smiths dimensions to beat him to the punch tho. I still say he's very beatable. Anyone that needs to go into the danger zone to get their punches off have little chance against him tho unless they push him back. Skoglund showed that. Its not a case of callum fighting to his level. More a case of skoglund didn't have to go into that danger zone as much as groves did. The problem he,ll face is Joe will stick to the same tactics regardless of opponent. That's when the great tactics that's won him fights become a problem.

 

Callum will continue to enjoy success until he meets someone his own size (or a particularly tough/skillfull "normal szed" opponent. ). Then he will be exposed.

 

Excellent post.

 

But Callum is tough and skilled to. You know the saying a good big un beats a small good un