Callum Smith vs. Luke Blackledge - December 10th 2016

[wesshaw1985]

Announced by the BBBofC...

[Stuarty]

Callum Smith? Really? Fighting a guy Fielding KO'd in a bloody round! Ffs! Pointless fight at this stage for Smith. Paul Smith v Blackledge would've been decent.

[rio]

Paul would not fight fight because he would lose. Paul has never beat a fighter of blackledges level. Calum beats him easy tho.

[ElJefe]

Don't really get the point of this. Didn't think he'd be too bothered about vacating/being stripped of the British title considering he won't be hanging around long enough to win it outright seeing as he has a #1 ranking with the WBC. Better than sitting out for a year before his shot comes but an international, fringe world level contender would surely be much better prep for Jack or JDG.

[CaptainSpacerod]

Callum should stop fighting journeymen just to fill a space on camp eddie's absurd shows. He should insist on meaningful fights at such a crucial stage of his career.

[Boxerbeetle]

Wow, this card gets better and better

[Stuarty]

Paul would not fight fight because he would lose. Paul has never beat a fighter of blackledges level. Calum beats him easy tho.

He beat Dodson who I would put in the same bracket as Blackledge but his wins are pretty dire.

[Fortynineandout]

Callum should stop fighting journeymen just to fill a space on camp eddie's absurd shows. He should insist on meaningful fights at such a crucial stage of his career.

Blackledge may not be a world beater and maybe levels below Callum Smith but IMO he's far from being a journeyman . In fairness to him he's earned a shot at the British title Having had to rebuild his career following the early ko from Fielding. If I'm not mistaken he took that fight at very short notice and walked onto one early doors ( sh*t happens ) .
Credit where it's due he's gone back to the drawing board , appears to have worked hard and become the commonwealth champion with a couple of impressive wins over Liam Cameron and Lee markham.
His team probably assumed/hoped Callum would step aside with bigger fish to fry and he could then fight for the vacant title against a lesser talent.

[bripez]

Smith is fighting an opponent who was knocked out in the first round by someone who he has since knocked out in the first round - not sure how anyone can see this as progress?

[crusader]

Callum should stop fighting journeymen just to fill a space on camp eddie's absurd shows. He should insist on meaningful fights at such a crucial stage of his career.

This, this, this

Callum looks like an excellent talent with the potential to be the best at 168. He had a nice string of wins over Rebrasse, Fielding, and Mouhamdi, but now he's losing momentum and taking steps backwards in opposition.

[mickey1975]

Luke got hit on the sly v rocky.

[keirw]

Pointless fight, glad he is keeping busy, but he should be fighting Euro level opposition rather than stepping down to British level again

[skanksta]

Pointless, but not a bad scrap while it lasts.

Blackledge has improved and will give his all. Smith ticks over against a decent guy that can't beat him in a million years.
0% excitement about it, but I'll watch it, and vaguely enjoy it.
Smith KO6.

[CaptainSpacerod]

Callum should stop fighting journeymen just to fill a space on camp eddie's absurd shows. He should insist on meaningful fights at such a crucial stage of his career.

Blackledge may not be a world beater and maybe levels below Callum Smith but IMO he's far from being a journeyman . In fairness to him he's earned a shot at the British title Having had to rebuild his career following the early ko from Fielding. If I'm not mistaken he took that fight at very short notice and walked onto one early doors ( sh*t happens ) .
Credit where it's due he's gone back to the drawing board , appears to have worked hard and become the commonwealth champion with a couple of impressive wins over Liam Cameron and Lee markham.
His team probably assumed/hoped Callum would step aside with bigger fish to fry and he could then fight for the vacant title against a lesser talent.

Fair comment. I was too dismissive of Blackledge who's a decent fighter. It's just frustrating to see Callum taking a fight from which he probably won't learn very much when there are a few fighters at world level that he could be matched with.

[Andrew]

Smith is fighting an opponent who was knocked out in the first round by someone who he has since knocked out in the first round - not sure how anyone can see this as progress?

Whilst I think Callum should be fighting someone better, The fielding loss is not as bad as it looks. He was tangled on the ropes turned round then bang onto Fieldings best shot the ref should have stepped in to break as his back was turned.


Still this card isn't looking impressive especially with a BEllew v BJ Flores and the "world class " Paul Smith fighting another Eastern European doorman.

[arlovski]

Blackledge is better than Rebrasse who had some success against Smith.

Callum Smith is not the unstoppable monster people think he is, has flaws+weaknesses like most fighters that are there to be exploited.

Blackledge is no mug at all, got some clever+cute skills that will pose Smith problems imo, especially on the inside

[crusader]

What evidence is there that Blackledge is much better than English/Commonwealth title level? From what I've read, his recent fights with Markham and Cameron were competitive, and he lost both times he clearly stepped beyond that.

Smith has his flaws and I consider him somewhat overrated, but I don't think Blackledge is even two levels near him.

[arlovski]

How much better is Blackledge than someone like Lee Markham?

well he beat him fairly comfortably when they fought.

It looked like it was closer than it was because the fight was in the proverbial phone box, but Blackledge was far cuter and controlled the tempo of the work completely, like i say he's underrated and has some really clever skills on the inside, an area where we haven't seen Smith have to fight for extended periods.

If Blackledge can survive the power+size of Smith early doors, this won't be as one sided as people are thinking

[crusader]

I'm just not seeing how Blackledge offers much more than a 'he gave it a go but was well out of his depth' effort. To me his level is clear with the competitive recent fights against sub-British level Markham and Cameron, and the losses when he stepped beyond that. I think he's another basic, straight-ahead guy who will flatter Smith.

Smith should be in with better and bigger names.

[arlovski]

I'm just chuffed a decent British pro is getting a shot on a Sky show against a big British prospect, could be a lot worse, at least Hearn hasn't dug out his directory of Argentinian midget taxi drivers like he did last time

[wesshaw1985]

http://www.BS.com/callum-smith ... 26--109272

[crusader]

Callum is stagnating....he should be moving toward world level opposition rather than back to British/Commonwealth.

I suppose it is a step up from his last two though!

[bodyactive]

All the best to luke

[Fitzy901]

Blackledge is not better than Rebrasse, not in a million years.

[tigermoth87]

Pointless fight for Smith. He should be facing someone in the top 15 at least.

In fact I'm shocked he hasn't fought for a world title yet, he'd beat Sturm and Jack.