Callum Smith

For the British cross-country skier, see Callum Smith (skier).

Callum Smith
Statistics
Real name	Callum Smith
Nickname(s)	Mundo
Rated at	Super Middleweight
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Nationality	English
Born	23 April 1990 (age 25) Liverpool, England
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Wins	15
Wins by KO	11
Losses	0
Draws	0
No contests	0

Callum Smith (born 23 April 1990) is an English professional boxer from Liverpool, England,^[1] competing in the Super Middleweight division. He is currently promoted by Matchroom Sport and is the former WBC International Super Middleweight champion. He is the youngest of British boxing's 'Smith family', with brothers Paul, Stephen and Liam also all enjoying successful careers as professionals. Callum is regarded by many to be the brother with the most potential and has caught the eye of boxing fans and pundits on both sides of the Atlantic.

Amateur boxing career

As an amateur, Smith represented Rotunda ABC in Liverpool at domestic level, where he won the 2010 Great Britain welterweight title^[2] and 2011 Great Britain Middleweight title^[3] and GB Boxing internationally.

2010 Commonwealth Games

At the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India, Smith up kept family tradition by winning a silver medal in the welterweight division, following brothers Paul, who also won silver at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England and Stephen who claimed a gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia. Triumphs over most notably Aston Brown of Scotland and Carl Hield of Bahrain saw Smith into the final only to be beaten by Northern Irish Patrick Gallagher.^[4]

2012 Olympic Qualification Tournament

Smith's bid to become GB Boxing's light heavyweight (81 kg) representative at the 2012 Olympic Games in London ended in bitter disappointment and controversy at the final Olympic Qualification Tournament in Trabzon, Turkey. After losing 16:14 in inexplicable fashion to Azerbaijan's Vatan Huseynli in the bout where a win would seal qualification,^[5] his hopes now relied on the man who had beat him in the previous round. As three light heavyweight Olympic places were available, the semi-finalist who lost to the eventual winner would take the third spot, however Smith's conqueror Huseynli lost to local Turkish boxer Bahram Muzaffer and Smith missed out on the third qualifying place. Soon after the tournament it was decided by AIBA that an invitational place at the Olympics was to be made available to a boxer of their choice and Smith had been short listed for the position but it was eventually decided in a cruel twist for the Englishman, that the place should be awarded to Boško Drašković of Montenegro, a man who Smith had convincingly out pointed earlier in the tournament. Drašković was eliminated from the Olympics in the first round.

Professional boxing career

In October 2012 Smith followed his brothers into the professional ranks, under the promotional banner of Matchroom Sport, and like his siblings, would be coached by Manchester based trainer Joe Gallagher. It was announced that he would make his debut on the undercard of Carl Froch vs. Yusaf Mack in Nottingham's Capital FM Arena on 17 November 2012. He scored a clear points win against Dan Blackwell over four rounds in his debut contest, however the victor wasn't entirely satisfied with his performance. The following month Smith returned to the ring for another four round contest at the London Olympia, his opponent was James Tucker and once again 'Mundo' won every round in a comfortable fashion. In February 2013, on the undercard of Carl Frampton vs. Kiko Martinez at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast, Smith earned his first stoppage win as a professional, halting Irishman Tommy Tolan, who had previously been beaten by Smith's brother Paul, in the opening round. Smith's home debut, on the undercard of Bellew-Chilemba I, at Liverpool's Echo Arena saw another Smith win in similar fashion, again his opponent, Iain Jackson, didn't hear the bell to close the first round. Now 5-0, it was time for Smith to step up his level of opponent and be given a stiffer test than he had previously been provided, the man chosen to provide this test was Latvian Ruslans Pojonisevs, however Smith's ability and punching power may have been under-rated as he made short work of his opponent with another first round KO. On 25 May 2013, on the Froch-Kessler II bill at London's O2 Arena, he met unbeaten Ryan Moore, 3(2)-0-0, Smith clearly demonstrated his superiority with an impressive fourth consecutive first round KO. On 21 September 2013 Callum Smith defeated Patrick Mendy in a British record 6th first round stoppage, and won the vacant English Super Middleweight title.

Professional boxing record