Perhaps it was a bit more dramatic than he would have liked, but Callum Smith remained unbeaten and advanced to the World Boxing Super Series super middleweight semifinals today in the UK. Erik Skoglund announced his presence on the world stage with a good performance behind a great jab too though. It was a pretty good fight to start the bracket.
Callum Smith (23-0, 17 KOs) started this fight very well. The first was a bit of a toss up, but rounds two through four made the fight look like it was going to be a one sided contest. The British prospect countered well and occasionally led. All the serious work was being done by Callum Smth.
Round five changed the tenor of the fight, however. Early in the round, Erik Skoglund (26-1. 12 KOs) landed a really solid shot that bloodied Smith’s nose. I am not sure if it was broken, but whatever the reason the young fighter did not respond well to this bit of drama. Smartly, Skoglund began to target the injury with relentless jabs.
I really mean relentless jabbing too. Skoglund did basically nothing else from round 5 to 8, but yet it swept him the rounds pretty comfortably on my card. He landed a higher percentage of his jabs than basically anyone ever does and he just kept popping them out there. In doing so the Swedish contender exposed a very basic defensive flaw against his British foe.
It all became moot soon, however. After splitting the ninth and the tenth, Smith hurt Skoglund fairly badly with a good right hand in the eleventh. After a couple more shots, Skoglund took a knee. While he bought himself time and got out of the round, it was a disastrous point to lose in such a tight contest. A tight twelfth probably favored Smith too.
In the end Callum won on somewhat wide cards, but he deserved the decision and they weren’t completely ridiculous so I won’t complain. Callum Smith moves on to face the October 27th winner between Jurgen Brahmer and Rob Brant.
