Kurbanov vs Liam Smith

Saying that...He was scarce a bit towards the end when he was with frank

 

I always felt Liam Smith was stupid to leave Warren, who had done really right by him. He got him a world title, in a tough division, with a few easy defences before a massive Canelo fight on US PPV. After that, two solid wins against Liam Williams that has gone on to look better and better with William’s improvements, before giving him another title shot.

You’ve got to think he would be no further behind if he was still with Warren. Could have had the Eggington fight still, and beat up these no marks he’s been mixing with. Surely he’s only moved over for the Brook fight, which won’t happen now, and Hearn hasn’t even mentioned Smiths name when it comes to his other domestic crop with Cheeseman, Fitzgerald, Fowler and Conway.

 

People are acting like Smith made a choice to leave Warren. Are we forgetting Warren’s post match interviews after the Williams fights? You’d never believe that both were his fighters. He had genuine tears in his eyes that Williams lost.

 

Not seen them - can you link? I couldn’t see them online but I remember him being certain of a rematch after the first. Warren certainly didn’t push Smith out - Smith was promised a title fight in his first year or the Brook fight and got neither.

 

Context is everything. Frank was doing nothing for Smiths career and used him as I stepping stone for Williams and was gutted when he lost. He did same with Arthur for Yates and Joyce for Dubois.
Smith went to Hearn but wanted world level fights which Hearn doesn’t really have for him.
He was apparently offered both the Cheeseman and Fitzgerald fights but didn’t see the value in it. Kurbanov gets him back in the world mix and a massive payday compared to what else is on offer

 

All the interviews when Smith went to MR was that he would be boxing in a mega fight or a world title fight before the end of the year. Instead he battered Sam Eggington and two Mexicans in 2019 and this is his first fight since. Okay there was the pandemic, but all of Hearn’s other boxers have got out - some twice.

 

Smith is quality in my opinion. Very underrated and certainly more skilled than everyone’s old favourite Callum. If he had power his career could have been different. I believe he’d have beaten Munguia and the Canelo fight would have been a real 50 50. He gave a great account of himself in the Canelo fight, he wasn’t beaten before he got in and had him more worried than a lot who fight him.

I hope he can pull out a nice body shot here or something because I can only see him getting robbed if it goes to points. That would be a terrible shame based on how Matchroom haven’t really sorted him out with anything in his prime years.

 

I felt Liam did better against Canelo than Callum did and a few others that have boxed him recently. The reason Liam was stopped was because he didn’t stop trying to win - Callum was happy to survive when the fight went past 6 and he wasn’t going to win. Liam kept trying to back Canelo up, land a big one, and was actually caught when he had Canelo on the ropes. Similar to how Hatton did better against FMJ compared to people like Robert Guerrero who was happy to survive and go the distance.

Tough one going to Russia. On home soil you’d imagine he’s a healthy favourite but away its a different story like you say.

 

Do we know roughly what time ring walks are?

 

From what I've read Kubranov isn't up to much and has a low punch output. So unless he's a defensive wizard, Smith should win this (who I think is massively overated on here).

 

He’s getting more credit now but I think he used to be very maligned.

Is this on tele?

 

ESPN+ / Fife TV