There was a point where Callum Smith was waking up to different news daily on whether he would land a dream fight with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
For weeks, Smith remained one of two unbeaten super middleweight titlists in the running to defend against the Mexican superstar, the other being Hatfield, England’s Billy Joe Saunders. There were days when it seemed the Liverpool native was no longer in the conversation, and others where he was within a stroke of the pen of hitting the jackpot.
“It was a weird situation to be in,” Smith (27-0, 19KOs) noted during promoter Eddie Hearn’s Instagram Live session on Friday.
The assignment would ultimately land with Saunders (29-0, 14KOs), although the fight never had a chance to be formally announced due to the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The global health crisis has brought all sports to a grinding halt, with every boxing event from March 15 through the end of April having been postponed or outright canceled.
It’s a silver lining for Smith, who can at least move forward with more productive conversations once the sport resumes.
“I didn’t get the fight, but no regrets,” notes the reigning titlist, who turns 30 later this month. “We even agreed to a lower (purse) than what they were paying Billy Joe. “It became (apparent) we were never getting the fight anyway.”
With the likelihood of big fights not taking place until the summer at the earliest—and perhaps with extreme optimism—could come the reality of Saunders also losing out on his golden ticket. As the bout would have carried by DAZN in the United States, the condensed schedule for the remainder of the year should give the over-the-top (OTT) media service the upper hand in pushing forward with the one fight the brass has long desired in or around the middleweight division: a third fight between Alvarez and Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin.
Such an event will force the likes of Smith and Saunders to look elsewhere—if not versus one another—for their next big payday. It suits the Scouse boxer just fine, as divisional consolidation was already his goal at the start of the year.
“Whatever fight can be made,” Smith insists of his wish list in a super middleweight division which boasts four undefeated title claimants (Callum Smith and David Benavidez being the other two). “They’re all good fights and they’re all good champions.”
“They are all good fights, and fights I would love to have this year or in 2021.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox