By Miguel Rivera
WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith believes Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez took advantage of a lot of fighters with his huge gains in weight for some of his past fights.
Canelo is known to pack on 20 or more pounds between the weighin and the actual contest. Smith felt Canelo's two most recent opponents, Miguel Cotto and Amir Khan were at a disadvantage due to Canelo's weight edge.
Both Cotto and Khan complained about Canelo's size advantage. Both of those fights took place at a catch-weight of 155-pounds. The contest with Smith will take place at the junior middleweight division, one pound south at 154.
Smith (23-0-1, 13KOs) will defend his title against Canelo (47-1-1, 33KOs) on September 17 at AT&T Stadium in Texas. Smith says he won't end up like his countryman, Khan and Matthew Hatton - both of which moved up in weight for the Canelo paydays.
"The difference is that yes I'm a natural super welterweight. The weight will not play against me like it did with Khan and others. People say that Canelo gains a lot of weight, 20 or 25 pounds, and I have no problem with [going against that] so Canelo not have the advantage with that. I can deal with that weight, and height will not be a problem. I'll go for the knockout and if we have to go 12 rounds I will trust the judges will do their best work and I will get the victory if I deserve it," Smith said.
"This is not about revenge [for my countryman who Canelo beat]. They had their chance and fell short, but without disrespecting them I think I'm a much more complete fighter than they were. I'm bigger, they were coming from 140 or 147 pounds, they were smaller, but I I'm going to compete on equal terms. I'm going to beat him without any fear."
