Class showing by Paul Smith

[Coco]

I have always thought Smith was a class act, i'm sure he is gutted about the result, but that is boxing.
Shame the bitching on here drove him away.

[earsjohn]

Hasn't Warren been openly critical of how difficult Adam Booth is to deal with in the past?

A win for Groves means he has to deal with him again and I'll guess he's none too pleased with that!

[JamesH]

I have always thought Smith was a class act, i'm sure he is gutted about the result, but that is boxing.
Shame the bitching on here drove him away.

I quite like Smith but to be fair he gave as good as he got. I remember a post from him to Carl Dilks being one of the bitchiest I've read on here.

[TheCobra]

I have always thought Smith was a class act, i'm sure he is gutted about the result, but that is boxing.
Shame the bitching on here drove him away.

I quite like Smith but to be fair he gave as good as he got. I remember a post from him to Carl Dilks being one of the bitchiest I've read on here.

Yeh he didn't come across all that well on here by the end. I remember him from earlier days on the Hatton forum and he came across great, but when it got to the nitty gritty I don't think he could take criticism off people and just came out with the party line of 'you've never boxed so how do you know anything about the sport'.

Compare that to Bellew who has took criticism of him in his stride and just got on with it, he gives his side of things without losing his rag.

To give Smith a little bit of leeway though, there did seem to be a few trolls around who liked to wind him up and he took the bait.

[Counter-puncher]

To give Smith a little bit of leeway though, there did seem to be a few trolls around who liked to wind him up and he took the bait.

personally i thought he was slightly more sinned against, than sinning, on here, and there seemed to be several who did their utmost to wind him up.

[iamasadlittleboy]

I have always thought Smith was a class act, i'm sure he is gutted about the result, but that is boxing.
Shame the bitching on here drove him away.

I quite like Smith but to be fair he gave as good as he got. I remember a post from him to Carl Dilks being one of the bitchiest I've read on here.

Yeh he didn't come across all that well on here by the end. I remember him from earlier days on the Hatton forum and he came across great, but when it got to the nitty gritty I don't think he could take criticism off people and just came out with the party line of 'you've never boxed so how do you know anything about the sport'.

Compare that to Bellew who has took criticism of him in his stride and just got on with it, he gives his side of things without losing his rag.

To give Smith a little bit of leeway though, there did seem to be a few trolls around who liked to wind him up and he took the bait.

I'm not Bellew's biggest fan...but he does seem a class act especially when it comes to the fans.

[JamesH]

Yep, he did get a few people trying to bounce on his balls but as said, he didn't take it well. I remember in a piece by Ian McNeilly that Paul said he only came onto forums as he felt bad that his fans had to defend him while he did nothing, something along those lines. I thought he came across well in that, and the opinion of many of those I respect is that he is a top man. What does stick in my mind though was that he seemed very vocal while winning, and disappeared when De Gale beat him. I don't mind him not posting, it just came across as a bit of a 'taking my ball back' when it didn't go his way. In fairness, it must be a tough situation when you're a bit sensitive and a few regulars always try and have a pop, especially when some of it was clearly trolling.

I'd still like to see him move down a weight and have a good crack at it. A two weight British champ would be an excellent achievement for him, and he'd have earned it.

[hurlock]

smith can sell 1000's of tickets in Liverpool if he has a belt to defend- guessing that's why FW wasn't thrilled?

Also we should remember that FW has been promoting AND managing Smith for a good few years whereas he only started promoting Groves a couple of months ago. Even promoters have feelings y'know and Smigga is a nice fella - doesn't mean George isn't, just that there hasn't been time for him and FW to 'bond' yet. I don't see any problem

i think what you'll find is glyn that fw aint in controll of groves & knows booth could use him and manouvere his man else where after 4 fights.the return generates alot of money for such a low level fight which is what our sport needs but booth is looking for other routes & wants to put the brakes on & hone his charge & give degale reconcilliation when the money is BIG (another house in cyprus D ) fw aint honing groves as he knows they will drop him worse then smith.

[JamesH]

Found this piece with Smith relating to the post-DeGale situation, and his subsuquent absence from the forums and some other social networking facilities.

http://www.BS.com/paul-smith-a ... ing--37566

You can see his point, I just think he hammers it home a bit hard at times.

Having said that, with Hagler taking such a bashing because he got it wrong about Katsidis, I'm starting to wonder how much abuse Smith would have got post-De Gale. We all see the forum posts, but he must have been brutalised by PM's.

And this is the piece Ian did during the summer as part of a series on BoxRecs fighting posters. The last answer is interesting.
http://news.boxrec.com/news/2010/boxrec ... paul-smith

[Jon Saxon]

I have always thought Smith was a class act, i'm sure he is gutted about the result, but that is boxing.
Shame the bitching on here drove him away.

Yep agree 100%


Shame on you all.

[Lenny]

Some people wound Smith up because he used to bite so quickly. I'm sure some boxing fans got a bit of pleasure about being able to rile a British Champion up - not actually appreciating the opportunity to interact with a high profile competitor in a sport they love (which doesn't necessarily mean kissing arse). I think the mix is spot on with the likes of Power and Bellew, but that is because they are far more laid back on here.

[SAPFO]

Wish he would come back and just block all the turds. How anyone can call someone who has reached that level shite is beyond me.