By Ben Carey
Paul Smith has been handed an immediate opportunity to avenge the sole blemish on his 25-fight CV. The Liverpool banger will attempt to regain the English middleweight crown he controversially lost on points to Steve Bendall last month at Manchester’s M.E.N Arena on September 6.
The bumper bill also features Alex Arthur defending his WBO super-featherweight title against Nicky Cook, Amir Khan against an opponent to be named and Salford’s Stephen Foster Jnr’s challenge for Femi Fehintola’s English super-featherweight belt.
Smith is still fuming with referee Mark Green after conceding a contentious 96-94 points reversal to Bendall on the undercard of Amir Khan vs Michael Gomez at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena. While most ringsiders felt Smith had done more than enough to retain his title in his first defence, all were in agreement that the Liverpool man’s performance once again fell some way short of his potential.
Veteran Bendall has been comprehensively stopped by Smith’s domestic rivals in British champion Wayne Elcock and Commonwealth king Darren Barker. But after making a decent start, Smith’s work was stifled by some scrappy in-fighting and consequently lost its snap as he tired in the later rounds as Bendall finished the stronger.
Not even celebrated American trainer Buddy McGirt was able to inject some much needed urgency into Smith’s work which must raise the question whether the 25-year-old would be better with a British based trainer who can develop him on a day-to-day basis? Smith turned pro under Ricky Hatton’s (not for much longer, if you believe the rumour mill) trainer Billy Graham and later hooked up with Liverpool trainers George and Danny Vaughan before later joining McGirt.
Despite being treated to some world class sparring inside McGirt’s Florida gym, Smith has struggled to use his education towards delivering convincing performances where it matters, in the ring. With his career standing at the crossroads, Smith may have to make a difficult decision for the greater good of his career.
