Home Boxing News Canelo Alvarez was “never serious” about facing Callum Smith

Canelo Alvarez was “never serious” about facing Callum Smith

Callum Smith after winning the World Boxing Super Series in 2018

The team behind WBA super middleweight champion Callum ‘Mundo’ Smith 27-0 (19) has accused Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez 53-1-2 (36) of not being serious about a fight.

Joe Gallagher, who trains the 30-year-old Brit, says Alvarez’s people should have made a “serious offer” if they really wanted the bout.

“Canelo, he’s that puzzle isn’t he,” Gallagher told Sky Sports. “You can’t work him out in the ring and you can’t work out what he’s going to do outside of the ring, until it’s nailed on.

“Him and Callum Smith would be a great fight. Whether they’re serious about fighting Callum Smith, that’s down to them. If they want to fight Callum Smith and fight the No 1, all they have to do is say, ‘We want to fight you,’ pay the money and the job is done.

“If they really fancy the job, they’d make an offer, a serious offer. Not like last time they made an offer, and then eventually Callum did accept an offer, but they never came back.”

WBO super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders 29-0 (14) was expected to land the Alvarez fight before the global coronavirus pandemic hit, but that fight seems unlikely to happen now in the current climate.

Gallagher says he would be open to a fight between Smith and Saunders in an all-UK unification clash.

“Callum is a world champion, coming up for nearly two years now,” Gallagher said.

“The main thing for Callum in this lockdown, we’ve got to get him out and get him busy, and get him going again, whether that means we have to fight a British fighter over here first before we have to go stateside.

“We don’t know. There’s loads of possibilities. There’s Callum Smith-Billy Joe, (Zach) Parker who just became Billy Joe’s mandatory after winning his last fight. That could happen over here. You just don’t know.”