Paul Smith Talks About His Boxing Brothers
By Terence Dooley
Paul Smith is gearing up for the next defence of his British super-middleweight title. Northampton's Paul David has been announced as the official opponent but the rumour mill suggests that James DeGale will be given a crack at Smith's belt. Smith is one of four boxing brothers, younger brothers Stephen and Liam are fellow pros, youngest brother Callum is representing England in the Commonwealth Games over in India. If Callum wins a medal he will him join Paul, silver, and Stephen, gold, as a Commonwealth medallist.
Stephen, 25, has recently caught up with Paul in the professional title stakes. 'Swifty' picked up the Commonwealth super-featherweight belt by decisioning John Simpson at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow last month. Paul believes that his younger brother performed admirably given that he tore a tendon in his left hand early in the contest, he also shrugged off the suggestion that the fight had been too close for comfort.
“He hurt his hand and got involved a little bit but don't forget that we had to take the title from Simpson,” declared 'Smigga' when discussing the split decision win. “I thought that people were being too hard on Stephen because people expected a lot from him and thought that maybe he shouldn't have got involved. Stephen had a game plan but we now know that the plan went out the window because of the injury in round four, which is going to keep him out for a while.
“Throw in the injury and every other factor, it was his first twelve rounder and it was against a proper champion, and I think it is fair to say that he did well in his first live TV fight. I thought it was close myself but he fully deserved the win. I'm his brother but try to be as unbiased as I can and had him by a few rounds. People watch it and see it in different ways but on the night I had it by three rounds, and there were a few rounds that were close that could also have gone his way.”
It was a bitty fight, with Sky's pundits see-sawing this way and that as the contest progressed. Jim Watt, who commentated on the bout, called a close encounter only to then quibble over the win. Johnny Nelson, up in studio, also had doubts over whether or not Smith had deserved the victory. Paul disagrees with their post-fight assessments.
“Jim Watt was very harsh on him,” blasted the 28-year-old. “Johnny Nelson was very hard on him. Ste's only a kid and I think he'll do a lot for the game. Jim Watt couldn't hide the disappointment that it was an English kid beating a Scottish kid. Stephen's the nicest kid and couldn't have been more humble after the result.
“Watt said he couldn't argue with it going either way, then when it went to Stephen he said he had to argue the decision. Apart from those little points, which have been sitting on my mind, I couldn't complain about the way Stephen won the title. His conditioning and all those little factors came together on the night and it was a sign of things to come.”
There are calls for a match between Stephen and British featherweight boss Martin Lindsay. Paul believes that his younger brother has the beating of the Belfast boxer yet feels that Stephen should take an interim fight in order to fully recover from his hand injury, which could keep him out of action for six months.
“I wouldn't think so after the injury Stephen's had,” said Smith when asked Stephen will take on Lindsay as soon as he makes his return from injury. “But he will fight him for that British title once he's had a fight to recover properly from the injury. I like Lindsay as a boxer and as a lad, I used to see him at a lot of the amateur tournaments, he was in the Irish team and I was in the English team, but Derry Matthews was out-boxing him until Derry got caught. I think Stephen would have Lindsay's number with his boxing ability.”
Liam Smith, who is nicknamed 'Beefy', battled to a draw against Terry Carruthers on the same Glasgow show, referee Kenny Pringle scoring it 38-38. I scored it 38-38 also. Paul, however, feels that his younger brother dug deep when required and had done more than enough to win the four-threes contest.
“I was disappointed with the result because I thought he did enough to win. That kid definitely didn't do enough to share that fight. Liam let him get close in a few of the rounds but did enough to win them and enough to win the fight overall. Liam's disappointed but he knows what he did wrong and will put it right in future,” predicted Smith.
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