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Boxing champ Callum Smith revealed his plan for beating Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on Saturday night in Texas. Smith, 30, will carry a significant height and reach advantage into the fight, but the winner of season one of the World Boxing Super Series tournament said he’ll need to be a complete fighter if he hopes to beat Alvarez this weekend in San Antonio.
“You can’t be that much bigger than someone and just give it up so easy, but I do understand at the highest level the fight is going to swap and change as the rounds are going on,” Smith said.
You can watch Smith talk about his big fight against Canelo below.
Canelo vs. Smith takes place live on December 19. All the action will be streamed live via DAZN.
It’s the biggest fight left on boxing’s calendar in 2020.
The main card begins at 8 p.m. ET, with Alvarez-Smith set to begin around 11 p.m. ET.
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Smith Talks About Canelo’s Many Styles
Smith believes Alvarez is one of the most complete fighters in boxing.
Most fight fans would agree. In fact, Alvarez is ranked No. 1 on the Boxing Writers Association of America’s latest pound-for-pound list, and the 30-year-old is listed the same by various other organizations such as The Ring.
“He’s at the level he’s at and in the position he’s in because he can do a bit of everything,” Smith said.
Smith talked about the Mexican defeating the likes of Gennadiy Golovkin, Sergey Kovalev, and other top-level champs while employing different styles for each contest, but Smith believes he’ll be ready for whatever style Alvarez tries to use against him this weekend.
“You’re not getting the same Canelo every fight out,” Smith said. “I’ve got to prepare for that. I’ve got to prepare for every version of him.”
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Beating Canelo Is Only Motivation Smith Needs
Moreover, Smith said he wasn’t leaning on Alvarez’s win over his brother Liam Smith back in 2016 for extra motivation. In his mind, Alvarez is one of the biggest and best superstars in the sport. He doesn’t need any more incentive to perform against that level of a star than that.
“That’s all the motivation I need,” Smith said. “It’s a chance to add to my legacy and a chance to improve my future in the sport…I want to be in the biggest fights possible, and this is the biggest fight possible. To fight one of or possibly the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world? Regardless of whether he fought my brother or not, this fight is just as big.”
Smith will be defending his The Ring magazine and WBA super middleweight titles against Alvarez, so there won’t be additional hardware on the line in the fight for the British boxer to take home.
Still, Smith recognizes just how important his big boxing battle with Alvarez is.
“Even though I won’t get a world title because of it, it’s probably a bigger win than even winning that world title,” Smith said.
“A win over Canelo Alvarez is huge, it will just open up so many more doors.”
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