THE worst thing about losing is it hurts. That can be physical, look at the damage to Callum Smithโs nose and his grotesquely swollen arm after his tortuous 12 rounds with Canelo Alvarez in San Antonio in December. But it exacts a mental cost too. Thatโs where losing a boxing match is especially painful.
Callum Smith was not accustomed to defeat. Before Canelo he had been unbeaten in eight and a half years. You have to go back 27 professional fights, back to 2012, to Trabzon, a small town on the Black Sea coast of Turkey to find the last time Callum Smith lost. A callow 21-year-old then, boxing an Azeri for a place at the London Olympics, Callum experienced what can only be described as a boxerโs nightmare. He was landing punch after punch yet his points were not being registered on the scoreboard. The result of that semi-final and his place at the Olympics was stolen from him.
The next day, a quirk of the qualifying system meant that whoever had lost to the gold medallist in that tournament would also be granted a quota place at London. So Callum sat ashen-faced in the stands of a sport centre in Trabzon staring down at the ring where the host nation boxer, Turkeyโs Bahram Muzaffer moved about with Vatan Huseynli, the man whoโd โbeatenโ Smith. Callum watched them shuffle round, neither putting in much of an effort. Both had what they wanted, and of course the home fighter won. Callum watched it all and tears welled up in his eyes.
โIt was hard because they kind of went through the motions in the final yet they were fighting for my future basically and my Olympics. Yet they didnโt care, theyโd both qualified,โ Smith said. โI never expected him to win. My world crashed down in the semi-finals, that was just a little added kick while I was down. They went through the motions, it was like watching a spar with two mates.โ
โIt was just a little bit harder to take because there was so much at stake for that one,โ he continued. โThe loss in 2012 I didnโt know where my career was going to go. I was about to turn professional, not an Olympian, I wouldnโt get the platform that they were going to get. Iโd have to do it the hard way, go through the ranks the long way but, again, now and then I was always confident in my own ability and confident that I could achieve what I set out to do. I still believe that now.
โI didnโt go to the Olympics but I went on to become a world champion.โ
When youโve lost unfairly but then go on to rack up win after win, you build up a sense of invincibility. Canelo Alvarez savagely stripped that away from him, along with his world title, with the dominant points win he exacted on Smith in December.
โVery few retire undefeated but when youโre actually in the moment and youโre going through your career you never believe itโs going to be now. You go into every fight believing youโre going to win and as youโre winning for so many years you build up this invincibility thing where you believe – I know thereโs better fighters out there than me, pound for pound I donโt put myself anywhere near the top of the list – but I always just believe on the night Iโll get it right and beat anyone. Iโve always believed that. I believed that this time [against Canelo] and obviously I didnโt. I think not losing for so long probably makes it a little bit harder. You forget what it feels like and to have it happen, it was tough. But Iโm 30 years of age now, Iโm not 21, โ the Liverpudlian said. โYou build this invincibility. You become used to winning and every time you walk to the ring you believe youโre going to win.โ
Alvarez was both brilliant and cruel. Smith may have been the worldโs leading super-middleweight before the Mexican moved back down into the division, but Canelo dictated the pace of their fight and exerted control throughout. He measured out Smith and ripped through merciless shots, targeting his left arm, smothering some of the Britonโs strongest punches. โItโs his intelligence. If you had told me he was going to do it beforehand, I still wouldnโt have believed it would work. By the time it starts to take its toll, the fightโs over. It played a part in the fight and fair play to him,โ Callum said. โYou hear of the old time fighters doing it. In the amateurs when it was the tight guard system a lot of the Uzbeks and Kazakhs used to do it but in a three-round fight I donโt think it pays what itโs supposed to. In a 12 round fight youโve obviously got a lot longer to chip away at it and a lot longer to fight with a sore or a tired armโฆ Iโd never seen or been on the receiving end of it until that fight.”
Canelo didn’t put him down, no one has amateur or pro. But Smith takes little pride in that. “Regardless of whether I lost in one round or lost on points, a loss to me was a loss,” Smith said. โHe is explosive, he springs out with one-two-three punch combinations. But I think going into every fight, you kind of over-expect the power. I remember when he caught me a few times early on thinking heโs not going to put a dent in me. Itโs more just his accuracy, he was landing. He was throwing a lot of right hooks to the arm and when I was expecting that he was turning it into the right uppercut which was hard to defend against and thatโs what done the damage to my nose. The thing what surprised me was his intelligence and defence. He was so hard to hit clean himself.โ
That was unnerving. Smith thought heโd be able to catch Alvarez. When he struggled to do that, he hesitated. He grew reluctant to throw power shots of his own. Alvarez negated the Britonโs offence and stifled Smithโs own gameplan. โBeing in with him I was landing jabs and stuff but anything coming off it, any of the shots you put your power in or have an effect with just couldnโt seem to catch him clean and even the ones I did land, he was kind of riding them and taking the power out of them. So I think thatโs something heโs mastered over the years. So if thereโs one thing Iโd say was his best asset, Iโd say it was defence,โ Smith explained. โIt takes what you do good away. Because as the fightโs gone on I was feeling, because I was missing with a lot of my power shots, you kind of stop fully committing to them because youโre not sure if theyโre going to landโฆ When youโre hitting thin air, youโre kind of hesitant to throw so it kind of takes away your offence which then youโre playing to his type of fight. Heโs intelligent.โ
โIt could have been a better version of me, thatโs something Iโve got to accept and Iโve got to live with but on him, heโs a good fighter and itโs hard for me to look good against someone whoโs taken what I do good way from me. Iโm not a sore loser,โ he added. โI got in there, he got in there and he was the better man on the night and sometimes youโve just got to accept that and move forward. Iโve got to look at why it wasnโt the best version of me in there, what did I do wrong, why was he better on the night and just try to become a better fighter.
โYouโve got to accept it and move on. When I lost in 2012, Iโd just lost the Olympics which Iโd built up for so long. I felt like my whole career had just come crashing down. This time I lost my world title but I kind of learned from 2012 where I thought it was the end of the world and I went on to achieve everything I had done. Whereas this time I know that I can come back and achieve more. You just take it different but at the time I probably cried just as much as I did in 2012. I donโt like losing โฆ Itโs part of sport, itโs not nice, youโve just got to get on with it.โ
He has had to let his arm rest and recover. It finished with damage all over and a tear in the deltoid, that caused the worst of the swelling to come up but did not require surgery.
Callum will also move up and move out of the division. He believes he can become a world champion again at light-heavyweight. The aim now is to be a two-weight world champion. โWe havenโt had many. I donโt think Liverpoolโs had one,โ Smith said. โIโve always had aspirations of being a two-weight world champion, itโs always been a goal. I always knew I was big enough, I had the frame to do it.โ
โI believe Iโll adapt to it well,โ he continued. โI believe Iโm good enough to compete at the highest level and win a world title.
โWe donโt all get there as undefeated world champions but as long as we get there thatโs the most important thing.โ
There are exciting fights to be made at light-heavy and paths back to a world title fight. โIโll sit down with my team and theyโll plan whatever route is best for me. At light-heavy thereโs a few different routes, obviously the belts are kind of split up. So weโll look at what routeโs best for me, Iโll follow that route and I believe Iโll get there. I know Iโm confident in my own ability, I know how good I am and I believe this time Iโve got a bit of a point to prove. I believe weโll see a better more improved version of me,โ he said. โTo leave the ring and sit in the changing room after as a loser, through not doing it for so long, it was hard to take at the time. But timeโs a healer, as they say, and as the weeks gone on itโs just made me more determined to get back to where I was. To get back to being a world champion.โ
โIโve always said if I was to lose I believe it would take a special fighter to beat me and I believe it did; heโs the pound for pound probably number one,โ Smith continued. โIโve always said Iโm in the sport to see how good I really am.
โI can accept losing to him although it still hurts. I still wish I could go back in time and do it again but I canโt. Youโve got to just accept losing and move on.
โIโve lost my world title. But I believe Iโm good enough to win another one.โ
Smith is adamant that he has something to prove, that he should not be written off. That he will be back. Bigger, stronger and a touch wiser too.