Not long to go now until the Canelo vs Smith fight for the WBO junior-middleweight title on Saturday. Here’s a quick breakdown on everything you need to know regarding date, time, TV channel betting odds and more.
Canelo vs Smith Fight Date
Saturday September 17th, 2016.
Time
The bout is likely to commence around 2am Irish / UK time, which is 8pm approximately local time (in Texas, USA), 6pm PT and 9pm ET in the US.
TV Info
The fight will be available on TV in the UK and Ireland on BoxNation and in the US it will be available on HBO pay per view.
Venue
The match will take place at the AT&T Stadium (formerly known as the Cowboys Stadium) in Dallas, Texas, USA that has a maximum capacity of 80,000.
Fighter Professional Records
WBO Champion Liam Smith: 23-0-1 (13KO)
Challenger Canelo Alvarez: 47-1-1 (33KO)
Betting Odds
If you are thinking of placing a wager on this fight there is no doubt the bookies view Canelo Alvarez as the hot favourite coming into it, but don’t be fooled by that – Liam Smith is a very live dog in the fight if he performs to his best.
Ring Magazine trainer of the year Joe Gallagher will no doubt have a tailored gameplan prepared for his charge and after Smith recently noting he feels the Canelo’s defence has weaknesses, they will be coming into this fight with zero intention of giving up their belt easily.
Smith is the champion and is also the undefeated fighter here, so will be without fear. Canelo however, if you are looking to bet on the fight outright, is hot favourite:
But at those type of odds, especially 7/1 in some places, a small wager on Smith is certainly not the craziest bet I’ve ever seen. Not by a long shot.
Smith will be looking to take the fight to Alvarez as a naturally big junior-middleweight himself, and a guy who likes to also fight Mexican style toe to toe like Canelo.
In theory, you’d have to think that somewhere along the way logically this will result in a stoppage, because of the mouthwatering clash of fight styles that seems to be on the table.
But that’s in theory, boxing oftentimes has a funny way of trumping conventional logic.
Both men have great chins it must be noted, very rarely hurt in their career and known for been warriors that will fight to the end.
It’s for that reason that the method of victory odds probably reflect the better value here, if you are looking to back a a points win for either man:
Prediction
In my opinion I expect it to be a very physical fight, both on the inside and the outside during different periods in the contest, where both men will trade at times.
Canelo likes to do this in spurts and box a bit too, and I wouldn’t be surprised it he’s thinking to himself he’s the man with the slightly more polished boxing skills of the two.
After weighing this up, I’d expect Canelo to try to both box and fight in patches, whereas Smith I’d expect to really look to bring it for the majority of the fight, despite any gameplan that trainer Joe Gallagher might be working on.
On such a big stage against an aggressive guy in Canelo, I think both men could revert to type in wanting to stand and fight but if I was to lean towards anything, it would probably be a Canelo points decision because of the slight edge in skills, but in a highly competitive battle.
If you are looking for a build-up video to the fight this one (here’s another decent one too) brought out this week by Golden Boy Promotions, commentated by Michael Buffer and aptly titled ‘Mano a Mano’ is worth a watch:
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