Callum Smith’s Trainer Says Boxer Would Welcome Fight Against Canelo Alvarez
With a potential return to super middleweight being in the cards for Canelo Alvarez, Callum Smith and his trainer stated that they are interested in the opportunity to face him.
After Alvarez defeated Daniel Jacobs to unify the WBA, WBC and IBF middleweight titles on May 4, Oscar De La Hoya listed a number of names that are being considered as potential next opponents for the unified champion. One of those names was Smith, the current WBA “Super” champion at 168 pounds.
A potential fight between Alvarez and Smith would pit two of the three WBA super middleweight titleholders as Alvarez is still the organization’s secondary 168-pound champion. Smith’s trainer Joe Gallagher spoke to Sky Sports and admitted that he was surprised hearing his fighter’s name being mentioned by De La Hoya.
“It was interesting that they put Callum Smith’s name into the hat. I was surprised that they wanted to. I know they want to make history and they dipped their toes in at 168 before when they fought Rocky Fielding. They must be fancying moving up again, but that’s music to our ears. We’d welcome ‘Canelo’ Alvarez moving up and fighting Callum Smith,” Gallagher said.
Smith recently took to Twitter react to a potential fight against Alvarez and like Gallagher, he is interested in a matchup against the pound-for-pound star.
Had a lot of tweets over the last couple of days regarding Canelo. If his team are serious and want to make the fight then I’m game! A big fight in the autumn sounds good to me —-
— Callum Smith (@CallumSmith23) May 6, 2019
Going into the specifics of what a fight between the two world champions could shape up to be, Gallagher said he would love for that fight to take place at Anfield, the football stadium in Liverpool, England that is home to Liverpool FC.
“They are saying they are willing to come to the UK. I know they are saying Wembley, but I would love to see that at Anfield. Anfield would be absolutely packed to the rafters for that and I just think it ticks all the boxes. We would welcome ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, if he wants to come over to the UK and fight. Yes, Callum Smith is the man to accommodate him,” Gallagher said.
Smith has held the WBA super middleweight title since September 2018 when he defeated George Groves in the World Boxing Super Series finals in Saudi Arabia. Smith’s first title defense has yet to be officially announced, but it is likely that he will defend his title on June 1 at the Matchroom Boxing show at Madison Square Garden.
