By Steve Kim
As Liam Smith (23-0-1, 13KOs) defends his WBO junior middleweight title this Saturday night at AT&T Stadium in Texas, he'll be doing so in front of an expected throng of over 40,000 fans - most of whom will be backing Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (47-1-1, 33KOs).
This will be by far the biggest stage he will have ever performed on. But the native of Liverpool swears this moment will not overwhelm him.
"Because it's one where I feel ready for," Smith insisted. "I've asked to come up to this level and we've been asking for a lot of big names and for quite the number of years. I feel I'm ready to make that step up and ready ow. I'll show you why I asked for that."
In many respects Alvarez chose to fight Smith rather than face IBF/IBO/WBC/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin. But the 28-year old Smith doesn't take that as an insult.
He explained - "Personally, he just thinks he beats me. Deep down he just knows he doesn't beat Golovkin and that's just the bottom line. I really think when he puts his head on the pillow he thinks he can beat me. Obviously it's my job to make him wrong in that."
Alvarez vacated the WBC middleweight belt a few months ago, after the sanctioning body had mandated he faced Golovkin in the fall. Alvarez then decided to move back down to 154-pounds.
"Deep down he knows he doesn't beat Triple-G. I think he's too small and if he would've come out and said it before I don't think anyone would've had a problem with it before. But because he said - 'Yes, I'm going to fight him, I'll put the gloves on now and fight again. I'm not giving up my title, Mexicans don't do that...' - and he did give the title up that's what made him look bad."
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.