Round-By-Round - Callum Smith vs. Eric Skoglund - September 16th 2017

[gilgamesh]

Do you honestly think he's afraid of losing to Dirrell

I do.

There's much more potential money to be made by winning the Super 6 Tournament. I think it was just a case of him making the smarter decision for his career.

[Horse]

I think it was just a case of him making the smarter decision for his career.

That's the excuse for most ducks.

[gilgamesh]

I think it was just a case of him making the smarter decision for his career.

That's the excuse for most ducks.

So entering a Tournament where you are likely to potentially face more highly regarded challengers than Dirrell is a duck? Wish more fighters would duck guys like that.

[Horse]

So entering a Tournament where you are likely to potentially face more highly regarded challengers than Dirrell is a duck? Wish more fighters would duck guys like that.

Groves is the only one in the tournament more highly rated than Dirrell.

Let's not pretend the super middleweight tournament is full of killers.

If he beat Dirrell then he could have moved on to have a unification fight with DeGale or Ramirez.

There are better fights for Smith outside of the tournament than inside. This isn't a brave move.

[crusader]

All Dirrell has is a draw and win against Bika. He's really not all that credible...

The Eubank-AA winner will be right there with him (AA would certainly have a stronger record), and so would Yildirim if he beats them. If Smith makes it to the final he'll probably face someone significantly more credible than Dirrell is now.

[Horse]

All Dirrell has is a draw and loss against Bika. He's really not all that credible...

No, but he's got a better record than Smith and he'd probably be the No. 2 seed if he had entered the tournament.

The Eubank-AA winner will be right there with him (AA would certainly have a stronger record), and so would Yildirim if he beats them. If Smith makes it to the final he'll probably face someone significantly more credible than Dirrell is now.

But if he didn't enter the tournament then he could have beaten Dirrell and then defended against another credible opponent or two outside of the tournament.

If everything goes well in the tournament then Smith could end up with 2 good world class wins and a world title.

However, I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was one or two pullouts and Smith doesn't even end up with one world class win. Another year of his career will have been wasted and he still won't have had a title shot.

I'm not saying that he was wrong to enter this tournament, but I don't think he deserves much credit for the decision.

[brian13]

Dirrell wanted the fight to be in his home town of Flint instead of LA.
Given that the money has to be put up prior to signing the contract - Flint is a pretty big change if you want to make an earn on your investment compared to a big card in LA.
If he insisted to get his way, even after agreeing and signing a legal and binding contract, with tons of other people's money at stake - the investors would have probably got cold feet and pulled the rug out from this event.
Dirrell knew it was not viable to have the fight in Flint ( no offence to Flint, I'm sure it's lovely) as there is not the same revenue streams as in LA. So why did he do it?
Thankfully Callum sniffed a dick-around and went into the series as a guaranteed chance at a belt. Good on him, he has waited long enough and this is a gutsy and admirable move

All the best to him.

Durrell pulled the same trick against Abraham in the super six. It's not the first time they have done something like this before.

[davie]

I'm not saying that he was wrong to enter this tournament, but I don't think he deserves much credit for the decision.

Speaking personally, I wasn't so much giving him masses of praise.
More defending him against people who insiuated the 'duck' was a pussy move to avoid Dirrell, as if Dirrell is feared and some kind of stone cold killer

I think we'd probably agree, both were decent opportunities. I would lean toward this tournament being the slightly better option

[davie]

I'd add, I don't reckon Smith would have faced Ramires or Degale in his next 2 fights had he beat Dirrell.
That would have been a different story.


What a bunch of crap nicknames SMWs have when you think about it.
I've just mentioned Zurdo, Mundo and chunky (who recently fought Porky Medina)

[crusader]

How about Mr. Robot?

[Horse]

Smigga.

[KiwiRider]

How about Mr. Robot?

Ahhh, domo origato my fwend

[davie]

Smigga.

That full family struggle with nicknames

Mundo, Smigga, Beefy and Swifty

[Oiky]

Bad nicknames

[Bigdogsnose]

he was shit scared of dirrels uncle = duck!!

[BigDoofus]

Do you think he ducked Dirrell?

Do you honestly think he's afraid of losing to Dirrell

Yes

Yes

[jameswilson]

Boxrec has this listed as in Sheffield on the same night as Golovkin v Canelo.

[wesshaw1985]

Boxrec has this listed as in Sheffield on the same night as Golovkin v Canelo.

Will they go head to head with W@rrens Saunders/Monroe show that is the lead in for GGG/Canelo?
Seems a bit daft to me...

[keirw]

I think Smith entering the tournament has more to do with Groves than Dirrell.
They have been pushing for the Groves fight for years and obviously see this tournament as the best way to make the fight happen.

The SMW tournament isn't a patch on the Cruiser one and is well off the quality of the original super six but the winner will be WBA champion, have a couple good wins and a hugely improved bank balance.

Seems a smart choice to me.

[3132DW]

Boxrec has this listed as in Sheffield on the same night as Golovkin v Canelo.

16th Sept - Echo in Liverpool was doing the rounds.

Fowler is fighting on 30th Sept in Liverpool and someone said to Hearn - that's very soon after Callum 2 weeks earlier.

[Frank1985]

I'd be surprised if it was in Sheffield, not a real hotbed for boxing at the moment, particularly with Brook seemingly out of action for a while.

[Ruthless-RKO]

September 16 in Liverpool

http://www.worldboxingnews.net/2017/07/ ... r-wbc-belt

[CaptainSpacerod]

I'd add, I don't reckon Smith would have faced Ramires or Degale in his next 2 fights had he beat Dirrell.
That would have been a different story.


What a bunch of crap nicknames SMWs have when you think about it.
I've just mentioned Zurdo, Mundo and chunky (who recently fought Porky Medina)

Rocky from Stocky is King of the crap nicknames

[Tarkus]

I'd add, I don't reckon Smith would have faced Ramires or Degale in his next 2 fights had he beat Dirrell.
That would have been a different story.


What a bunch of crap nicknames SMWs have when you think about it.
I've just mentioned Zurdo, Mundo and chunky (who recently fought Porky Medina)

Rocky from Stocky is King of the crap nicknames

Saint George, Son Of God and The Resurrected are the few with religious flavor.

[davie]

I'd add, I don't reckon Smith would have faced Ramires or Degale in his next 2 fights had he beat Dirrell.
That would have been a different story.


What a bunch of crap nicknames SMWs have when you think about it.
I've just mentioned Zurdo, Mundo and chunky (who recently fought Porky Medina)

Rocky from Stocky is King of the crap nicknames

Saint George, Son Of God and The Resurrected are the few with religious flavor.

Who gets called the resurrected