This Saturday night at the Echo Arena, Liverpool sees the return of Callum Smith as he continues his pursuit of the WBC Super Middleweight crown. “Mundo” will be tackling tough, experienced Hadillah Mohoumadi for both the European 168lb crown as well as for the right to be mandatory contender to the WBC strap held currently by Badou Jack. Mohoumadi will provide a good test for Smith but has suffered three defeats when stepping up to world level.
For the undefeated Smith, this fight is seen as good progression for a fighter who is still relatively inexperienced, but win and he could be challenging for world honours before his 20th fight. Fresh from the first round blow out of domestic rival Rocky Fielding in November, Smith would put himself in an enviable position of young, undefeated, mandatory challenger should he come through on Saturday night. Smith has blasted through the majority of his opponents and is widely thought of as the best of the famous boxing Smith brothers.
The domestic scene at 168lbs in the UK is brimming with talent. The UK can boast current IBF champ James DeGale, three time world title challenger, George Groves, as well as Martin Murray who is looking for another shot at the big time. The underlying narrative is that DeGale is keen to lock horns with Jack in a unification clash and that could leave Smith waiting around until next year. In an ideal world for fight fans, Smith could keep busy and put pressure on the respective governing bodies by taking on Groves, a win against the well respected Groves would be great for fans but could be seen as high risk, low reward for Smith.
On the Matchroom undercard we’ll see some evenly matched bouts on paper with some good local talent on show. Rocky Fielding will take on durable Frenchman Christophe Rebrasse. Fielding suffered his first taste of defeat when he was blown away by Smith and takes on Rebrasse who Smith convincingly beat in 2015. Fielding will look to propel himself back in to contention by beating this tough challenger. An exciting rematch is in store when Scott Cardle takes on Sean Dodd for the British Lightweight crown. The two were involved in a fight of the year contender in November and when Cardle finally ground down a game Dodd, a rematch was always likely.
– Jonathon Fell / @Jonathon_fell
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