Whilst many fans are deciding that a defeat for Anthony Joshua against Daniel Dubois could spell the end of his boxing career, Liam Smith finds himself in a similar situation on the undercard. Yet, as ‘Beefy’ prepares to bounce back from defeat and trump Josh Kelly, his trainer has revealed details of a spar that the two Briton’s shared in the past.
Former WBO super-welterweight champion Smith rocked British boxing when he knocked out Chris Eubank Jr in emphatic style at the beginning of 2023, becoming the first man to half the controversial middleweight despite the fact that he had moved up in weight for the fight.
However, in the rematch, the Liverpudlian was unable to repeat the feat and instead fell to a stoppage defeat of his own in a performance that has cast him to the wayside.
Now, Smith has the opportunity to re-establish himself as a world title threat as he attempts to become the second fighter to overcome the slick Josh Kelly and Smith’s trainer Joe McNally told iFL TV that his fighter is in a ‘fantastic place’ ahead of the scrap.
“He is in a fantastic place. We have worked away out here, obviously he got a lot of s**t after the last fight and rightly so. My main thing was for him to be healthy and fit, to do the weight correctly and covering every aspect of his camp, which he has done.”
“[He’s had] really, really tough sparring against strong 168 and 175lbers and we are prepared but under the radar now, not too much talking It will show you if Josh Kelly has got the minerals, I know what Liam is made of and Liam turns up on the night. Josh Kelly is in real deep and Liam will take him to the wire massively.”
“I am excited for the fight, Josh is a fantastic talent, he has got a good team around him but there are questions out there about him. If he wants to find that out with Liam then so be it.”
Although the clash is a salivating one stylistically, this will not be the first time that Smith and Kelly have shared a ring. In fact, McNally went on to point out that Smith’s experience of sparring Kelly will likely mean that ‘Pretty Boy’ will avoid meeting the Scouser in the centre.
“They had one spar; I think it was on the Wednesday and he chose to stand there and fight with Liam. I won’t say too much about it and in the second spar he [Kelly] reverted to type. That was it really. Josh reverted to type and had a dance around.”
“I am under the understanding that Adam [Booth, trainer of Kelly,] wanted him to be confident working in the pocket on the Wednesday and I enjoyed that spar. In the second one, he reverted to type, which is Josh’s style of hit and move, it was a bit s**t to be fair.”
Smith-Kelly is one of the standout undercard contests on offer on the Joshua-Dubois card at Wembley Stadium on September 21st and will be available to watch live on DAZN PPV.
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