The Liverpudlian, fighting on American soil for the first time, lost his WBO light-middleweight title after Alvarez ended the fight with a punishing body shot, which left Smith writhing around in agony as he failed to beat the count.
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Saul “Canelo” Alvarez knocked out previously unbeaten Liam “Beefy” Smith in the ninth round Saturday to regain a share of the super welterweight world title before more than 51,000 at AT&T Stadium in Texas.
“He was too good and skillful today, and I was too slow”, said Smith, 28.
“I have just fought Canelo Alvarez, I’m not going to say to no to fighting Kell Brook”.
The below left hook to the body could not have been placed any better, right on the side of the rib cage of Smith and as the third knockdown of the night, he was never going to be getting up from it.
“I couldn’t really land clean”. For a fight be great, it must have some drama that makes the boxing fans think there’s a chance for either fighter to win.
He’s won six fights in a row since suffering his lone defeat – a 12-round majority decision loss to Floyd Mayweather in 2013.
With Khan and Brook moving up two weight classes and failing in their bids to dethrone Alvarez and middleweight kingpin Gennady Golovkin respectively, spirited showings by all three men looked to have set up potential domestic clashes back in the United Kingdom.
Asked about that match-up – and whether he was ducking the hard-hitting Kazakh – Alvarez said: “I fear no one”.
“I was born for this”. “A lot of people don’t like it, but I’m the best fighter right now”.
The 26-year-old Mexican star, who claims to have injured his hand in the second round, still managed to win every round right up until the very end, but the outgunned defending titlist fought back valiantly right up until the very end. For his part, Smith said his timing was off and it would have been better if he waited a little bit more to test Alvarez’ skill and power.
Alvarez had won a middleweight title but vacated it for this shot at the junior middleweight championship, sparking criticism that he was avoiding the hard-punching Golovkin. He didn’t want to accept. “As I said, we are a team and I fear no one”.
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No matter what Canelo and his promoter Oscar De La Hoya want to say about the Mexican fighter not being a middleweight, he clearly is.
