Liam Smith Not Fighting 2/13, Will Return March or April

By Shaun Brown

Liam Smith’s second defence of his WBO World light middleweight title will not be on February 13.

In the immediate aftermath of his first defence against Jimmy Kelly, last month, it had been suggested by his promoter Frank Warren that he could return in February at Liverpool’s Echo Arena. Smith’s second defence would have been part of Warren’s Terry Flanagan-Derry Mathews ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ promotion

After the win over Kelly on Boxnation, Frank Warren told Charlie Webster: “Next year he’ll get three or four defences under his belt,” and added he would like the first of those to be in Smith’s home city of Liverpool.

Having had two successive camps back to back Smith is now taking a break and looks set to return to the ring in March or April.

Warren told Boxing Scene that he and Smith will sit down next week to make a decision on when and where his second title defence will be.

The 27-year-old Liverpudlian had a stellar 2015 with four wins from four. Robert Talarek (TKO 8), David Romero (TKO 7) didn’t have enough in their arsenal to cope with ‘Beefy’, before the Liverpudlian brought the first ever world title to the fighting Smith household with an impressive seventh round stoppage of John Thompson.

No names have been mentioned for Smith’s next fight but it is no secret that the Brit would love a crack at Puerto Rican superstar Miguel Cotto.

His brother Stephen looks to make it two world titles for the family when he travels to New York on March 26 to challenge Jose Pedraza for his IBF World super featherweight title.

Shaun Brown is Boxing Scene’s UK News Editor. Follow him on Twitter @sbrown2pt0 Contact him at sbrownboxing@gmail.com