Andre Ward hasn’t fought for 19 months… Paul Smith will fancy his chances of shocking ring-rusty American

Brit Paul Smith Jnr fights Andre Ward in Oakland, California on Saturday
Liverpudlian Smith is rated as a massive underdog for the world title fight
But Ward has not fought for 19 months and Smith will fancy his chances
Floyd Mayweather is no closer to announcing his next opponent
Argentinian boxer Sergio Martinez retires and will take up career in acting

Jeff Powell for the Daily Mail

Published:
21:31 GMT, 15 June 2015

|
Updated:
05:22 GMT, 16 June 2015

View
comments

There are Last-Chance Saloons and then there are bars in which it might be better not to pick a fight.

In most boxing eyes Paul Smith Jnr is walking into a beating in California on Saturday night.

The eldest of Liverpool’s four fighting brothers has two chances against Andre Ward – slim and none.

And as flamboyant promoter Don King is fond of saying: ‘Slim just left town.’

Should Smith do the same?

Scroll down for video

Andre Ward holds up his championship belts after his defeat of Edwin Rodriguez in November 2013

Not when, as a total professional, he has the opportunity to test himself against the best super-middleweight on the planet.

Not when, at 32 and with a thoroughly respectable record, he can bring his career to its climax with his third successive fight against a world champion.

Not when this is likely to be his last sizeable pay-day in the prize-ring.

Not when Ward, for all his formidable hi-tech skills, is a less than destructive puncher.

Of all those caveats, the latter may be the most important in justifying Smith’s decision to venture into Ward’s home town of Oakland.

As Smith says: ‘Ward is a brilliant technical boxer but he doesn’t have the power to damage me physically.’

Not only that, but there is another reason why Smith may well give a better account of himself than many are expecting.

It is 19 months since Ward last fought.

If Smith can start fast he could enjoy a measure of early success while Ward is shaking off the ring rust.

Although that period of inactivity – the consequence of promotional disputes and injuries – has deleted him from most pound-for-pound rankings, Ward is still widely perceived as one of the top three or four boxers in the world.

He remains, also, the WBA’s ‘Super’ world champion at super-middleweight – although that title will not be on the line on Saturday.

Ward lands a left to the head of Rodriguez in what is his last professional bout to date

The dispensation for Ward to take an interim bout not only denies Smith his long shot at becoming world champion but also casts him very much in the role of a warm-up opponent.

Trainer Virgil Hunter – who is also Amir Khan’s mentor – has hand-picked Smith as the ideal man to be in the opposite corner as Ward makes his debut with the newest of the new kids on the US boxing promotions block.

Rapper Jay Z helped extricate Ward from a management morass so as to make him the flag-carrier for his Roc-Nation company.

The Saturday night production will also feature loud music performances, as a template for future fight events of a different kind.

Clearly, they do not expect any nasty surprises from their English visitor.

Smith qualified for this evening in the laser-light-show by two sterling challenges for Arthur Abraham’s WBO world title, both away in Germany.

Although he was outpointed both times, the lop-sided scoring of the first fight – especially by one flagrantly home-town judge – led to him being granted a rematch.

Ward says he is not looking past Smith, yet he keeps talking about ensuing fights with everyone from middleweight KO king Gennady Golovkin to big-punching light-heavyweight Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev.

Paul Smith Jnr takes evasive action against Arthur Abraham in Kiel, Germany in September 2014

As one of only two men to have defeated Carl Froch, he has also talked up a re-match. But the Cobra’s promoter Eddie Hearn does not believe Ward is enough of a crowd-puller for what could be Froch’s farewell fight, if indeed he decides against retirement.

Froch is encouraging Smith to ‘give it a go’ against Ward, agreeing: ‘Andre can beat anyone technically but he can’t badly hurt you.’

Smith says: ‘I understand I’m the underdog but this is probably the only opportunity I will get to face such a great boxer. I would be a fool not to take it.’

That he would. And when he says ‘I’ll give it everything,’ we can be sure he will.

Wish him well – and whatever the outcome raise a glass to him in whichever saloon you find yourselves on Saturday night.

Ward v Smith will be televised live on Sky Sports on Saturday night.

Floyd Mayweather has named the date – September 12, as expected – but not yet the lucky man.

Amir Khan heads the queue outside the MGM Grand chapel in Las Vegas but he has been jilted there twice before.

Britain’s Amir Khan is hopeful of being the next man to fight Floyd Mayweather Jnr

Juan Manuel Marquez, Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman and Gennady Golovkin are among many others jostling for the honour.

Whoever gets invited to the altar, be sure there will be a pre-nuptial agreement.

Mayweather banked more than $200m for beating Manny Pacquiao, to become the highest-earning athlete on the planet.

Prince Naseem Hamed was prevented by a family illness from travelling to America at the weekend for his induction into boxing’s Hall of Fame.

Doubly a pity, since Naz waited so long for the call to Canastota in upstate New York and his presence would no doubt have enlivened the proceedings still further.

For sure our brilliant knock-out artist and only-once-defeated world champion entertainer would have treated the gathering to the line he used when told he had been nominated for the honour:

‘I miss boxing – but not as much as boxing misses me.’

Prince Naseem Hamed connects with a right to Marco Antonio Barrera in his only defeat in April 2001

The old game will also miss Sergio Martinez, Argentina’s great world middleweight champion who announced his retirement during the ceremonies.

‘Maravilla,’ defeated among others our own Matthew Macklin, Darren Barker and Martin Murray.

Victories over Kelly Pavlik in his prime, Paul Williams with a stunning KO and the significantly bigger Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr elevated Martinez at one point to No 3 behind Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao in the pound-for-pound rankings.

His elusive, athletic movement was the key to his genius but chronic knee injuries have got the better of him.

Martinez was reduced to a shuffling limp in his Madison Square Garden finale last summer which ended his career in defeat.

Now, at 40 and already a matinee idol in Buenos Aires, he is heading home for a very different career – in movies.