Hearn wants Callum Smith vs. Anthony Dirrell in Liverpool

BoxingNews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: If Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn gets his way, #2 WBC Anthony Dirrell (30-1-1, 24 KOs) will need to travel to Liverpool, UK to fight his guy #1 WBC Callum Smith (22-0, 17 KOs) for the vacant WBC super middleweight title in the coming months. Hearn is attempting to negotiate the Smith-Dirrell fight but he suspects it’s going to go to a purse bid, which he feels he’ll be able to win.

If Hearn wins the purse bid, he’s interested in staging the fight at Anfield, in Liverpool, so that Callum Smith could fight in front of his own loyal British boxing fans. Smith is from Liverpool, so he would have a huge advantage over the 32-year-old Dirrell if the fight takes place over there.

Not surprisingly, Dirrell doesn’t want to fight Smith in the UK. Dirrell’s talented brother Andre Dirrell found out the hard way how difficult it is to win a decision in the UK as the visiting fighter when he lost a controversial 12 round split decision to Carl Froch in 2009. Dirrell appeared to beat Froch in the minds of many boxing fans, but the judges gave it to the home fighter Froch. That was a fight in which Froch roughed Dirrell up, and wasn’t penalized for his rough stuff. It was one of the strangest fights I’ve ever seen. Instead of Froch losing a point for roughing up and body slamming Dirrell, it was Dirrell who ended up losing a point for holding. Anthony Dirrell doesn’t want to put himself in the same position as his brother in having to fight in front of a large pro-Smith crowd in Liverpool. It’s going to come down to whether Dirrell’s management can win a purse bid against Hearn.

“I think that will go to purse bids,” Hearn said to skysports.com. “Dirrell doesn’t want to come to the UK, as his brother didn’t. I don’t think they are going to accept any offers. I would love Anfield. I would like to do it at Anfield. If we win the purse bid, they will come, they will have to come. We will wait and see on that I think,” said Hearn.

Well, of course, Dirrell will come to the UK if he loses the purse bid. He’s not going to give up his title shot just because he loses the purse bid. He would have to come to the UK anyway if Smith were to get his hands on the World Boxing Council 168lb title.

The good news for Dirrell is he brings his own judges with him in the form of his two fists. He punches with a lot of power, and he’s got an opponent with very little experience and next to no defensive skills. Callum Smith’s defense is basically his offense. If Dirrell can go after Smith early and push a fast pace, he has a good chance of knocking him out.

Smith isn’t solid like Badou Jack, who was able to walk Dirrell down and beat him by a 12 round majority decision in their fight on April 24, 2015. Smith isn’t at the level of Badou in terms of chin, defensive skills or talent. As such, Smith won’t be able to talk Dirrell down like Badou did.

Smith has the option of challenging IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale for his title rather than going after the vacant WBC belt. Smith and Hearn have invested so much time in trying to get a shot at the WBC title. They don’t want to give up on that investment, so they’re going to stay on that path. I think it’s a mistake on their part.

Dirrell is a more solid fighter with better punching power than DeGale. I think Smith could beat DeGale. It’s also a bigger fight in the UK than Smith-Dirrell. I don’t see that as a good move for Smith to take on a puncher with the hand speed and talent of Dirrell. Smith has the perfect situation to win an easy title against DeGale, who took a beating in his last fight against Jack in fighting to a controversial 12 round draw last January.

DeGale appeared to lose that fight in the minds of a lot of boxing fans. But more importantly, DeGale took a bad beating in that fight, and he’s probably not going to be able to handle another war against someone like Callum Smith in his next fight. DeGale is promoted by Hearn as well. It would be an easy fight for Hearn to make. Facing DeGale is the smart move for Smith.

Fighting Dirrell would be a mistake. I just don’t want Callum Smith and Hearn to both crying crocodile tears after Dirrell beats him. I’ll be here to say ‘I told you do’ after Smith loses to Dirrell. I would never take that fight if I was Smith or Hearn. I’d steer Smith towards safer waters against DeGale or the winner of the George Groves vs. Fedor Chudinov fight. There’s also WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight champion Tyron Zeuge, who is arguably the weakest link among the current champions at 168. Smith would likely destroy Zeuge. He would obviously wind up fighting him in Germany, so he would need to work hard for the win, but I think he could do it. I have not been impressed at all what I’ve seen of Zeuge.

Dirrell is the type of fighter who would do well fighting Smith in Liverpool or any place in the UK, but that doesn’t mean that he’d be happy about it. Dirrell isn’t going to want to put himself in position where he might need a knockout just to ensure he gets his hand raised at the end of the fight.