Callum Smith wants Vegas fight with Canelo Alvarez

The hunt is on, and of course, it should have been expected.

With Canelo Alvarez moving up to super middleweight to face Rocky Fielding on Dec. 15 in New York, super middleweights were bound to start flying in with hopes of facing Alvarez down the line, particularly those associated with DAZN, with whom Alvarez signed a massive $365 million, 11-fight deal recently.

Callum Smith is a super middleweight — arguably the No. 1 super middleweight right now — and he’s with DAZN. So he ticks the boxes. And he wants to face Canelo.

“If he stays at super middle, then I’ll definitely be putting my name in the hat for his next fight at the weight. He’s a special fighter, but I don’t believe he’s the biggest at super middle, and I think that gives any super middleweight a slight advantage over him, what they probably lack in ability up against him.

“But if he stays there, then definitely I would love to fight him. Fighting Canelo Alvarez in Vegas is another thing that I would like to tick off. I would be happy to go for the big fights now, and I don’t think they come much bigger in my weight division than Canelo Alvarez.”

Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KO) has the WBC, IBF, and WBA “super world” titles at 160 pounds, and the move to 168 to face Fielding (27-1, 15 KO) is a calculated one. The smart money is on Alvarez, who is much shorter than Fielding, being able to use superior skill to win the fight despite giving up size.

That may not be the same for a fight with Callum Smith, who is 6’3” and very talented. Smith wrecked Fielding in less than a round back in 2015. Smith is a legitimate top super middleweight. Fielding is a guy who, with no disrespect meant to him, has been hand-picked because he holds a secondary title, and with a win, Alvarez can claim to be a world champion in a third weight class. I’m not saying Fielding presents no danger to Alvarez, just that he doesn’t present Callum Smith-level danger to Alvarez.

But Smith probably isn’t the only super middleweight licking his chops at the idea, either, and you might as well say it publicly and plant the seed in case there ever is a chance of the fight being made. It gets no bigger than facing Canelo in today’s boxing world, really.