C'mon SMITHO!

First topic message reminder :

This thread is dedicated to Paul Smith who takes on a genuine p4pder in Andre Ward on Saturday night.

Yes its at a catchweight

yes Smith is talor made cannon fodder for Ward

yes Smith looks woefully out of shape

yes its a disgrace of a fight in reality

yes Smith is scouse

but there is a chance for a major upset. Ward might be ring rusty and I think as Brits we should get behind Smith so please feel free to leave your comments of support for one of our own.

C'mon SMITHO.

I guess that's the question hammy. Do they think the extra few pounds gives him a better chance of a more credible defeat? Giving him better chance of more high level fights in the future?

Is that worth 60k dollars?  When it won't make jack difference and when it labels him a weight failer?

Bizarre.

It worked for Salido but Ward is too experienced and too good to be out muscled by extra weight.. I can only see this back firing on Smith. If he decides to fall over after two rounds there might be a riot.

Oh Paul....people in glass houses

Smith really got his ass handed to him. Total mismatch and beat down.

The mismatch was no surprise however worse than that I cannot think of anything positive to say regarding Smith's "performance". I didn't think he had much of a chance v AA but at least he showed spirit, grit and tenacity, not much of that evident on this showing, overweight, ponderous, punchbag sad to see.

Smith has  suspected broken nose, stupid fight for Smith to take, his management must have known he had no chance, hope Smith got well paid.

Never mind ring rust Ward would have had to cease up to lose this one.

Smith was ment to get 225k. He lost 45k at the first weigh in and 15k at the second. Thats 165k. Factor in the cost of sparring partners, joes 10% and any other fees (taxes etc) then hes probably lookin at just over 100k. For the hiding he took last that isnt really that much for such a high profile fight. Glad but cuz its his own fault for not making weight. Losing 60k and all be had tp do was loss 4lb. He is a laughinh stock now so he will never make that money again. Hopefully thats the last we see of the sour faced bore

I'm digging that last line you wrote Dee.

Paul's not even the best SMW in his family, which must be depressing.

He was only there to pick up a cheque but you would have thought he'd realise that if he had another honourable defeat there would be more pay days out there. As it is, that's probably his career over.

Hope Smith joins the Sky team now, there are a few good domestic scraps for him, but I don't think he will want to go to that level, nor will he want to fight his brother.

Smith is a great pundit and would drastically improve the dross (apart from Johnny) on that Sky team

BoxingFan88 wrote:Hope Smith joins the Sky team now, there are a few good domestic scraps for him, but I don't think he will want to go to that level, nor will he want to fight his brother.

Smith is a great pundit and would drastically improve the dross (apart from Johnny) on that Sky team

I agree, Sky team for Smith, I quite like him as a pundit, time to call a halt to his ring career, nowhere to go for Smith, British and European was always his level.

Not a good way to go down for Smith, I wonder will it quell his lip.

The Ward episode was a bit of a disaster for Smith. Lost 25% of his purse and got slaughtered in there by being a human punchbag. Didnt enhance his reputation at all with his performance or his lack of professionalism missing the weight.

Paul Smith has blamed water retention for him missing weight, and Andre Ward and his team have also let him off the fine so Smith doesn't lose any cash.

Strongback wrote:I'm digging that last line you wrote Dee.

I imagine you were sorry it was stopped..

Smith fought like an intimidated fighter.....He obviously has a lot of respect for Andre...Didn't give himself a chance.....But he took his hits and showed plenty of heart...

Nothing to be ashamed of...Time to enjoy his family...

PaulHv2 wrote:Paul Smith has blamed water retention for him missing weight, and Andre Ward and his team have also let him off the fine so Smith doesn't lose any cash.

The commission were taking half Paul. So I'd say smith is still out of pocket. That's classy of ward though (although his purse was $2 million).

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

Strongback wrote:I'm digging that last line you wrote Dee.

I imagine you were sorry it was stopped..

Smith fought like an intimidated fighter.....He obviously has a lot of respect for Andre...Didn't give himself a chance.....But he took his hits and showed plenty of heart...

Nothing to be ashamed of...Time to enjoy his family...

He was under prepared and ended up being  a punch bag. There aren't too many positives to take from that, he did himself no favours.  Big heart, big mouth, small brain.

Smith didnt look in good shape and never really gave it a go. Very lucky if he escapes without having to pay any fines. Performance and preparation looked as if it was just a turn up and take the money scenario.

He did screw up before and during the fight...

I'll agree with you there...

Like the Stevo-Bellew game plan..

Smith blamed water retention. How can he try and throw that excuse now wen hes coming to the end of his career and it has never happened before. Just a massive coincidence it happened as he stepped into the ring with one of tbe greatest fighters of our era. Yea right paul. Thing that that get me is why go through all that nonsense and lose 60 odd grand. He was gonna get beat anyway so why not just do the weight right and have an extra 60k in the bank. Silly guy. Agree with truss he looked like a scared guy in there last night. But credit wer its due he stuck it out for as long as he cud and got his face rearranged
Didnt quit like say Chavez jr the other week
Done him nl favours and the whole unprofessional saga will mean he will never get another big shot again

Only himself to blame.....oh and that pesky water in his body

Scared isn't a good word..........Think he was in awe of Ward and gave him far too much respect....

Wasn't Spinks v Tyson..

I can forgive Smith for missing the next-day weigh in to some extent as I suspect he's not had to adhere to too many of them before in his career, if any at all.

I'm not sure if he's specifically meaning the first weigh in or the next-day one (or both) when he blames "water retention" but there's no excuse at all for ballsing up (if it was a balls up rather than just thinking, 'f*** it') the inital weigh in as badly as he did. Smith has talked a couple of times from my memory about going back down to Middleweight in the last few years, saying he could still make that without any bother, albeit he's usually done this after a defeat at Super-Middle. To me he's always looked like he had a bit more to cut as a 168 pounder. So for him to be missing 172 all of a sudden is a joke.

Not like he only just missed it, either. Over 4 lb just smacks of unprofessionalism and making no attempt to hit the contracted weight, for me, especially considering the financial repercussions which they'll have been well aware of. I find it hard to believe that Smith and Gallagher might have thought it was beneficial to add extra bulk in order to improve Smith's chances which were already slim to none, as there was nowt to really suggest that was the way to go - but then again, having heard some of Gallagher's pearls of wisdom before, you never know.

Full credit to Smith for sucking it up and taking his lumps without ever giving in, but overall I don't think he's done his reputation any good here.

What reputation did he have Chris ????

The end of the day Smith knew he was facing a guy that made a younger Abraham look crap......easily beat Froch......disposed of Kessler......

When you aren't in that league it's hard to "kid" yourself.....

I see Smith as a good honest pro who's British title standard.....

Hurt his reputation..............Not with me..

Actually agree with this Truss, just can't see how he could have got himself really 'up' for a fight that every man and his dog was saying he was not just getting beat, but getting mullered in.

Think it's a shame he missed weight (especially after the Rocky Fielding blasting.) and whilst he hasn't enhanced his reputation don't think it will hurt him too much either.

Think this might be it for him now though and as others have said, wouldn't mind seeing him as a permanent addition to the sky team

Has to be it...................Callum will beat Fielding for the Brit title and will be sniffing the Euro after that...

Groves, Abraham and Degale will soon be the three titleholders..........

Fruitless moving to 175..........

Nowhere to go..........

His career was a decent one...........Probably overachieved and good luck to him.......

Time to go..

dunno. He's a professional sportsman... he should be able to channel everyone saying he had no chance into trying to prove them wrong. Which is what he said he would do. This fight was entirely predictable to everyone. Walking punchbag, covers up with high guard... he was man enough to take his digs so credit to him for that, but lacked the courage, ok lets call it belief, to have a real go. It wouldn't have altered the result but it might have garnered some respect. As it was, Ward might as well as hired him as a sparring partner. He'd have got a bit more practice hitting him with pillows. Or saved the money and just stuck a picture of smith's head on a heavy bag.

Part of me thinks, good luck to smith for getting the abraham and ward fights - its a hell of a tough way to make a living and its not his fault he doesn't have a lot of talent. But as a fan, part of me is sickened by seeing someone so undeserving get 3 bites at the cherry (even if last night wasn't a title shot)... when you think of the guys that never have. When you watch what groves and degale did to him, there was never much doubt about ward having a hard time.

I don't blame smith at all for taking the fight, he has a family to feed. Maybe the son of god needed to blow some cobwebs away. But for the rest of us, it was a pointless exercise.

Truss I didnt mean scared in the sense that he was afraid of ward himself. I seen it as he was scared of throwing punches because he knew ward was too quick and was easily able to counter. He just stood still with that high guard hoping not to get hit. But even that in it self didn't work because Ward just went to that disgrace of a body he came in with.

At that level its a bit of a cop out to say "well fair ply he took a few lumps". Journeymen do that kind of thing day in, day out. The hard work should and commitment should start with the training and prepartation. Smith clearly didnt really bother his arse with the preparation. He was never going to win but he basically seemed content to play the part of a well payed journeyman. Dont really think the fight will have done Ward any favours either. Im sure he had tougher spars.

catchweight wrote:At that level its a bit of a cop out to say "well fair ply he took a few lumps". Journeymen do that kind of thing day in, day out. The hard work should and commitment should start with the training and prepartation. Smith clearly didnt really bother his arse with the preparation. He was never going to win but he basically seemed content to play the part of a well payed journeyman. Dont really think the fight will have done Ward any favours either. Im sure he had tougher spars.

Anyone who's been in the ring will tell you it's hard work boxing 8 1/2 rounds without being in good shape....Three rounds felt like the Boston marathon..

The guy was outclassed and didn't believe....

However If the towel wasn't sent in he'd still be there taking shots now......Let's not be too hard.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:However If the towel wasn't sent in he'd still be there taking shots now......Let's not be too hard.

Have to disagree........he would have crumbled within the next 2.

I think it served its purpose for Ward and I don't think there's any need for another tune up before he takes on a legitimate name at 168 again (Hunter confirmed after the Smith fight that Ward will be going back to Super-Middleweight proper, apparently). The better fighters out there than Smith are obviously going to ask harder questions of him but the nineteen month layoff didn't seem to take anything off his speed or sharpness. He still looked fresh and busy in the ninth although that comes with the caveat that he took very little punishment and was able to dictate the pace he wanted.

The only thing which struck me as a little out of character was that Ward wasn't going in and out as much here as he has in other fights. Normally he's a bit more aggressive coming in with the jab and likes to outmuscle his opponents and work inside to show them who the boss is physically as well as skills-wise, but there wasn't much of that here - and even when there was it was usually when Smith got in close to him rather than vice versa. I guess Ward was just controlling everything so easily from longer range that he didn't feel the need to.

Not sure where his next big fight comes from, though. Hearn isn’t letting Degale anywhere near Ward for the time being, you’d suspect, as he can get him a Brook-esque defence against Murray or Fielding later this year before targeting the big money Groves unification rematch in 2016 assuming Groves keeps his end of the bargain by beating Jack. Easy fights for Hearn to make and a lovely business opportunity for all involved (himself, Degale and Groves). For similar reasons, I don’t think Groves will be looking at Ward right now, either.

Incidentally, I genuinely think if it were up to Degale and Degale alone, he’d get in there with Ward tomorrow.

Froch is basically retired, nobody is going to flock to see Abraham have a second crack at Ward given the 12-0 that Ward pitched against him years back and Abraham’s own patchy form these days and judging by Golovkin’s recent comments, the only guy he’s willing to go up to 168 to fight right now is Froch.

I’d still like to see Ward in there against Dirrell (Andre). Appreciate he’s not bringing as much to the table as he would have been had he beaten Degale for the IBF belt, but he’s still a legit opponent for Ward and brings a level of speed and athleticism that he’s not faced in a while. I know the old line between them used to be that they probably wouldn’t fight as they are / were buddies, but Dirrell was saying a couple of years back that he wasn’t taking that stance anymore and would happily put that aside for a fight against Ward, which he was looking forward to. So hopefully something can be worked out.

Aside from that, we might just end up waiting for the WBA to enforce Ward against the winner of Chudinov-Buglioni!

Shame that Martin Murray can't get a Visa as I think he'd make a better fist of it than Smith...although to be fair, Audley would have had a better go than Smith.

Wonder if Ward would go down the line of picking of British SM with a view to drumming up a bit of interest on these shores re another fight with Froch. The press then get on board with their "look at this smartass Yank beating up our brave British lads " or some such jingoistic nonsense and suddenly Froch is fighting not for himself but for the whole of the UK.

Froch then loses and loses badly then everyone in the country hates him, Rachel is disgusted with him and looks to me for comfort which I willingly provide!

Everyone is a winner...except Carl Froch (and I'm ok with that)

Murray didn't have a punch at 160 and he had a dreadful battering in his last fight..

I'd pick Smith to beat what's left of him at 168 !!

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Murray didn't have a punch at 160 and he had a dreadful battering in his last fight..

I'd pick Smith to beat what's left of him at 168 !!

Smith to beat Murray

That deserves a