Callum Smith woke up on Sunday morning still WBA Super Middleweight champion. Job done.
His performance against mandatory challenger John Ryder wasn’t the best of his twenty-seven fight career but on a bad day at the office Smith emerged still world champion, after his second defence, and still unbeaten. And Smith freely admits that not having the “fear factor” played its part in his below-par performance which Ryder capitalised on to produce his best ever.
“What I’ve shown is I can beat John Ryder on a bad performance,” Smith told Boxing Scene.
“I wish I did perform well and won easier. There’s fighters in my division I’ll lose to if I were to turn up like that. That’s the fear that will always bring out the best in myself. I feel like I need that and I just don’t think John Ryder brought that out in me at the weekend. I thought he might but he didn’t. I beat him on a bad performance. I need a bit more fear than that.”
Smith v Ryder is a hot topic right now in boxing thanks to the scorecards which appeared to be harsh on the challenger, who many thought won on the night. 116-112 (twice) and in particular 117-111 have been met with disbelief. Smit’s promoter Eddie Hearn, who also promotes Ryder, is on record saying that Terry O’Connor’s card was too wide. ‘Scene asked Smith if he has been shocked at the reaction to the fight and the scoring.
“A little bit,” the champion replied.
“A close fight you're always going to feel hard done by. You're always going to feel like the man you wanted to win won. Ryder wasn't expected to go the distance, never mind the whole fight, so I think when he's in the fight and landing and doing better than people expect they get a bit carried away and think he's doing better than he actually is. I didn't think I was going to go in there and blow him away. I knew beforehand he was a tough fighter. I didn't expect it to be as close as it was but I think it was more a case of that people didn't expect him to be in the fight. I thought I lost one, maybe two rounds out of the first eight.
“I watched it back on Sunday and Andy Lee [Sky Sports analyst] had me winning overall by two rounds. He give Ryder the first two and I don’t think he did anything in the first two rounds. I thought he came out pretty slow. It was one of those fights were there were a lot of close rounds but I always thought I was ahead. I know I wasn’t performing at my best but I felt I was winning the fight.
“John finished strong and I allowed him to smother me which I knew he was going to do, but I let him do it a bit too easy. I still stand by what I thought. I won the fight but one of the scorecards was probably too wide.”
The fall out looks likely to rumble on with Ryder confirming to ‘Scene on Monday that his trainer Tony Sims will be writing to WBA President Gilberto Mendoza to address the concerns he has with the scorecards. For now Smith can look ahead to a potentially lucrative and legacy defining 2020 should he land a fight with Canelo Alvarez or defending his titles at Anfield, the home of Liverpool Football Club, of which he and his three brothers are all fans of.
Smith appears to have little interest in a rematch with Ryder right away. His mention of the “fear factor” has his mind thinking about the other champions at 168lbs or a fight against Canelo next May in Las Vegas. Smith, Billy Joe Saunders and so on are all waiting on the Mexican’s next move following his recent win over Sergey Kovalev at Light Heavyweight to become a four-weight world champion.
“I think regardless of any fight with anyone else, everyone’s first pick will probably be Canelo,” Smith said. “There was talk of me fighting Saunders but if either one of us got offered Canelo we’d both probably prefer that fight than each other. It’s a bigger fight all round. We have to wait and see who he picks. And whoever doesn’t get that fight will have to then look elsewhere and we’ll all likely be looking to fight each other after that. Canelo, who holds the cards, will decide who he fights next and then the rest will make their move after that. I just leave that down to my team. Whoever they say is next I’ll do my job and prepare for it. I’ve said it before, I believe I can beat anyone in the world when I’m on my game and I still stand by that.”
And would Smith be able to find the motivation and the already alluded to “fear factor” should a rematch with Ryder be made?
“I don’t know until that fight was made. I’ve beat him on a bad night and I feel I can beat him again on a bad night. If I did get the rematch I’d want to do a better job, to stop all the talk because there’s been a lot of criticism after this one so I’d like to put it to bed. Maybe it would bring a bit more out in me. We don’t know what the future holds. That fight could happen, it might not. I just always believe I’ll find a way to win against Ryder.”