Canelo vs Smith Preview – The boxing calendar heads into September, and the majority of the big fights are programmed from now until the end of the year. Last week, the HBO double header featuring Roman ‘Chocolatito” Gonzalez vs Carlos Cuadras and Gennady Golovkin vs Kell Brook kicked off the last third f the year, and this coming weekend sees the huge Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs Liam Smith PPV match from Cowboys Stadium.
We spend the first have of the TnS podcast discussing last weekend’s fights. Gennady Golovkin forged another knock out for himself against Kell Brook, who fought gamely but was taken out in the fifth round by the aggression of Triple G. Brook received a broken eye orbital bone in the fight, and Golovkin dropped a round or two early to Brook before eventually flooring the gas and taking the British fighter out. Golovkin has been declared the mandatory challenger for WBA champion Daniel Jacobs. The WBA would not sanction the Golovkin vs Brook bout due to the weight difference, but they moved quickly after Golovkin’s victory to try and make Triple G versus Jacobs. Jacobs is in need a a marquee opponent, and he is coming off a strong and decisive win over Sergio Mora in a rematch this past weekend as well.
Smith is the one in a unique position to play spoiler here, but the sports books are not really giving him much of a chance, with Alvarez coming in a strong -1200 favorite for the fight as we approach the weigh-ins.
Canelo vs Smith Preview
The Podcast continues with the preview of Alvarez and Smith where we look at the PPV potential for this fight. Alvarez drew 660k purchases for his last fight against Amir Khan, and the chances of matching that number are low in this one.
The podcast focuses on cable giant HBO’s strategy for boxing, as the September 17th PPV is followed by the November 19th pay-per-view featuring Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward. Recent polls at The Sweet Science show that the Kovalev versus Ward fight is considered the strongest of the “big” fights that remain on the calendar this year, but because both fighters are not huge main stream names, that PPV is expected to be a lower seller than this weekend’s Canelo vs Smith offering. It will be interesting to see how HBO adjusts their boxing strategy heading into 2017 after what can definitely be called a transitional year.
The Super Flyweight category is in a position to thrill boxing fans over the course of the next year. Gonzalez now has a world title in a fourth weight class, and the competition is lining up. Undefeated 23 year old phenom Naoya Inoue of Japan (10-0) recently defended his WBA world title and he attended the “Chocolatito” versus Cuadras fight as a guest. There are very few people who would say no to a rematch for Gonzalez with Cuadras either, and the 115 lbers also have newly crowned WBA champion Luis “El Nica” Concepcion and freshly minted IBF titleholder Jerwin Ancayas of the Philippines.
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