August 25, 2024
Source: Boxing Scene
Photo Source: Boxing Scene
Josh Kelly has warned Liam Smith that he’s ready to beat him because he’s the one who has reached his peak – not because he considers Smith in decline.
Their fight represents one of the most appealing on the promotion at Wembley Stadium led by Daniel Dubois-Anthony Joshua on September 21. It will also take place at middleweight, where Kelly has never previously fought.
Smith and his trainer Joe McNally have spoken of their belief that Kelly and Adam Booth, the 30 year old’s trainer and manager, have targeted Smith because of his profile and the perception that at 36 he is finally declining.
However Kelly, long recognized as one of British boxing’s most natural talents, insists that their confidence instead exists because he has physically and psychologically matured.
His only defeat, by David Avanesyan in 2021, owed in part to not only the older Avanesyan’s superior physicality, but the struggles with hypochondria that held Kelly back. His recruitment of Steven Green, a mindset coach, has since contributed to the nurturing of a new-found conviction.
Kelly had hoped to fight earlier in 2024 after, in December, stopping Placido Ramirez, but he has remained in Booth’s gym waiting for an opportunity like the one that has been presented, and he told BoxingScene: “It’s been a blessing in disguise. I’ve been waiting, but I’ve been training. Of course there’s ups and downs, where your head goes, ‘Fucking hell – what are we doing here?’. But now I’m like, ‘This is why the fight didn’t happen’. It’s a blessing. This has come at the right time.
“This is where I’m at. I’m more than ready for this. It’s just took a long time to make. But I’m more comfortable in my skin – I’m a mature man now. I’m 30; I didn’t get hairs under me arms until I was fucking 18. When I was 24, 25 I was still a boy, fighting all these men. When ‘Canelo’ [Saul Alvarez] boxed Mayweather when he was 23, Canelo was like a bloke. He was a young, strong man. I’m only starting to get that now. I said to Adam I could continue for five, six, seven years after this. I keep meself young. I don’t live a crazy life, and I’m feeling comfortable where I am in life. With life experience you become more relaxed, because you’ve seen it and done a little bit more.
“I was supposed to be boxing in May; June. Then it was, ‘You could be boxing in October now’. I’ve just been keeping myself ready. I’m on fire in the gym; I sparred Felix [Cash] a lot in his training camp; I did 10, 12 rounds, so I’m more than ready now.
“We were on the brink of making the June one. That was going to be someone else. It was just going to be a fight. ‘Listen, I need to get out – I can’t be sat here training this hard and not fighting.’ It was three or four weeks before the fight. Adam was, ‘We’re ready; anytime now; we only need three weeks max to fight anyone’. That’s how ready I’ve been.
“At the moment I’m having to pull the reins back a little bit because I’m so ready. But I’ve never been in this position before, so it’s a nice place to be, and it’s the right place to be, as a fighter.”
Smith last fought in September 2023, when a back injury contributed to him convincingly losing his rematch with Chris Eubank Jnr. He and McNally see in his being matched with Kelly comparisons with when in 2021 – eight months after Kelly lost to Avanesyan – he stopped Anthony Fowler, at a time when his future as a world-level fighter was at risk.
“Liam’s been in with everyone, ain’t he?” Kelly continued. “He’s been with Alvarez; he’s been in with [Jaime] Munguia; he’s been in with a lot. I’m putting myself up against him – that wealth of experience – I’m excited to challenge that sort of thing. I’m not in this sport to say I took an easy route; I’m here to test meself against the best and come through, because I believe I am. If you don’t believe you are, that’s where you take fights here, there and everywhere. After the Troy [Williamson] fight in 2022, I was ready to fight these guys then. It just never happened. I’ve had to wait an extra year, but I’m here now, and I’m grateful for it.
“I don’t pick my opponents on that basis [that I believe they’re declining]. Adam selects me opponents anyway; we talk about it, but if it’s in [Smith’s] head, it’s not in my head. He must be questioning himself, not me, because I’ve never questioned that whatsoever.
“I believe the best Liam Smith will turn up on the night; I think he’ll try and turn the clock back, because after that loss against Eubank [he’s got to redeem himself], so I’m ready for the best version of him. I’m just thinking about me – I don’t need to think about anyone else. If I’m thinking about him, I’m not concentrating on me. I need the best version of me. The best version of me gives anyone else in the world problems.
“He’s had a good, long career. Fucking hell, if I could have the career he’s done I’d be feeling blessed and grateful. He’s won a world title; he’s boxed the best all over the world. It’s just, my time – that’s all it is.
“I never thought [we’d end up fighting]. I thought Liam might have been out of the sport by the time I stepped up to this level, but he’s not – and we’re quite friendly. It’s not hard, but it is what it is. It’s just business. We’ve gotta feed our families. But it’s my time now. It’s my time.
“Growing up you look up to people like that. His family’s steeped in boxing, and I’ve watched them coming up, and thought, ‘Fucking hell’. It weren’t a style I revered, but at the same time I respected his fucking hard work; how smart he is behind them hands; that closed guard. He’s really sneaky behind it. I’ve watched him loads, growing up, and I remember as a kid watching the Smiths. It’s mad.
“I’m no Fowler. I’m totally different to Anthony Fowler. I’m totally, totally different. In terms of his mindset, maybe, but in terms of fighting me I’m a totally different kettle of fish. [If he believes that] it’s going to be a really hard night for him. But I know he rates us; he knows the score.
“You go through ups and downs where you think, ‘I’m fighting; I’m fighting; I’m fighting’; you gear yourself up, then it doesn’t happen. But my maturity’s kicked in now. As a kid I’d have been totally different. Now I think I’m mature enough to go, ‘Yeah, take a day off; keep it moving; see the kids; take them out; come back; now I’m back to training’.
“It’s not like, ‘This is not happening; that’s not happening’; I lose my head. I’m locked in. I’m a mature young man. I’ve got my eyes on what I need; my eyes on the prize; what’s coming to us; what’s due. I can’t wait. It’s going to be a great night.”
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