Canelo vs Smith Wrap – HBO Boxing brought us the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs Liam Smith WBA world light welterweight title fight this past Saturday, and the in-ring action saw Alvarez dominate the WBA belt-holder on his way to a 9th round stoppage. Smith was game heading into the match-up, but early on it was apparent that he did not have the fire-power to hurt Alvarez. From there Alvarez turned methodical, slowly breaking his opponent down and delivering more and more punishing punches. The first knock down came in the seventh round, and Smith went to the canvas in the eighth round after a hammering body blow. Alvarez landed the finishing body shot the following round. The fight ended with the referee waving the count off while Smith lay writhing on the mat in pain.
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The live event was held in Arlington Texas’ massive AT&T Stadium, the home of Jerry Jones and the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and the paid attendance was reported to be 51,240. The more interesting figure will come later in the week when the number for pay-per-view buys is estimated. The figure is going to be a good measuring stick for the true state of boxing today, as Alvarez is considered the biggest draw out there. His last PPV, back in May when he faced Amir Khan, sold 660k PPV buys and it is an open question whether this fight will come in with more or less buys than that. Smith was a world champion and an undefeated fighter, but he was not even a blip on the radar in the American market prior to this past weekend, so all the buys for this PPV are on the name “Canelo.”
With Smith stepping out of his comfort zone and fighting outside of England for the first time, the now former WBA world champion deserves credit. But how much credit? A lot of British boxing pundits have gone so far as to call Smith “world class” based on Saturday’s performance, and here at TnS, we delve into whether our British friends are guilty of a little bit of partisan overrating. Do not miss Talk’n’Shoot’s Boxing Podcast #21 – The Canelo vs Smith Wrap Edition!
Check out boxing analyst Ray Flores’ take on the “Canelo” vs Smith bout at The Boxing Channel.
Canelo vs Smith Wrap
The big news coming out of the post-fight hype is that Alvarez suffered a right thumb injury. This will change the stated plan which was for Alvarez to return and fight sometime in December. The injury is unfortunate because it means that the most likely time for “Canelo” to return will now be in May of 2017.
There has already been talk about Smith heading back home to England for a potential match-up with Kell Brook. Now, that fight would be a good payday for both men, but Brook emerged from his big fight with Gennady Golovkin with a broken orbital bone. If Smith is ready to fight without waiting for Brook to heal, he should do it. The fact is that his stock is up in boxing, especially in England and he should show his gritty nature by bouncing back right away, even if it is for a “tune-up” type of fight.
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Canelo vs Smith Wrap / Check out more boxing news and features at The Sweet Science.
