Callum Smith knows he put on a piss-poor performance in his last fight against John Ryder last November, but he believes the critics who keep harping on it as a true indication of his abilities clearly have no clue what the word “anomaly” means.

In an interview with Chris Mannix on the Sports Illustrated Boxing Podcast, Smith, the reigning WBA super middleweight titleholder, spoke about his long awaited, upcoming defense against Canelo Alvarez on Dec. 19 at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Smith took exception to the notion that he was in over his head for this fight because of his highly disputed decision over Ryder last year.

“It’s a warmup fight (against Ryder) and people just pick holes in it,” Smith, 30, said. “And all your good fights before on undercards are just forgotten about, as if that’s your real version. (They are) just flukes.

“Listen I know what I’m capable of and what I can do. Listen I know the version of me that turned up in my last fight I'll lose (against Alvarez), there’s no two ways about that, but the best version of me turns up, I win.”

The winner of the 168-pound World Boxing Super Series tournament in 2018, Smith (27-0, 19 KOs) insists he will be the toughest opponent Alvarez has ever faced north of the middleweight division. Alvarez has fought beyond the middleweight limit twice, folding super middleweight Rocky Fielding inside three rounds in 2018 and knocking out then light heavyweight titleholder Sergey Kovalev in the 11th last November. Smith, an especially tall fighter for his division, believes his combination of size, power, and boxing ability will carry him to victory over Alvarez.

“He’s a special fighter,” Smith said. “He’s in the position he’s been in because of what he’s done previously. I just think stylistically, I think I’m hard to beat. I think the best Canelo Alvarez is 160. I’m at 168. I think there are a lot of big people at 168. I’m big but I believe I got the skills to go with that as well. I just think tactically and stylistically I’m in this fight to win it.”

The Canelo-Smith fight was announced earlier Tuesday, just a couple of weeks after Alvarez announced his separation from his longtime promoter Golden Boy. Initially, according to multiple reports, Alvarez was exploring a deal to face Caleb Plant on a Premier Boxing Champion pay-per-view show, but he eventually settled on Smith, in a fight to be streamed by DAZN.

Smith admitted much of his patience had been worn thin the past year waiting in limbo for the Alvarez fight. He and his manager Joe Gallagher publicly butted heads with his promoter Eddie Hearn over that. But Smith, to his credit, kept grinding away in the gym even as he stared down an uncertain future.

“Listen it’s been frustrating a lot, not just him (Hearn),” Smith said. “We’re in a pandemic but you just want to get your career back on track and get me out toward the end to be here. It’s been frustrating when you're in the gym training and you don’t really know what your training for and it could be waste.

“It’s been tough, but I’m a professional fighter and I’m paid to train and keep my body in the best shape possible and you’ve always got to be ready for the call and I got the Canelo call just over four weeks ago, and if I hadn’t been in the gym and living that type of life then I would have never been able to accept it, but I was.”

“(This) was the fight I’ve been calling for but where it’s been dragged down for so long it was just getting to the point of where it was frustrating, ‘just hurry up and get it done or leave it and let's move on,’” Smith continued. “So it was frustrating but when it did get across that line and I'd seen the official poster and it was announced and I saw the reaction. Yeah, listen, it feels good. It’s exciting. These are the fights I’ve always dreamed of being in ever since I was a little boy.”