‘He’s not going to stand in the middle of the ring and fight me’: Smith talks upcoming fight with Kelly

Liam Smith says he’s prepared to deal with what Josh Kelly will realistically bring to the ring come fight night.

Ahead of his September 21 fight against Josh Kelly, Liam Smith takes some time to talk to iFL TV about the upcoming matchup following his loss to Chris Eubank Jr last year, his expectations for the fight, and more. Check out some excerpts from Smith below with the full video interview at the top.

Smith on whether it will be difficult to know what version of Josh Kelly will turn up for their fight

“There’s loads of ways of looking at it, they think he’s this beast all of the sudden, do you know what I mean? ‘Josh Kelly is the fuckin’ animal, this massive puncher.’...if he’s this beast we’ll see next week but I know what Josh Kelly we’re getting. We’ll get the flash Josh Kelly, moves his legs and tries to dance about the ring. Be realistic, he’s not going to stand in the middle of the ring and fight me.”

On where he thinks Kelly rates in comparison to other fights he might’ve pursued instead

“Josh is just a nightmare one that you’re going to have to fiddle out, you’re going to have to break him down...a one-round fight with anyone, Josh Kelly can put up a fight with anyone, you know what I mean?...he’s tricky but it’s a 12-round fight for a reason.”

On his past sparring sessions with Kelly and Kelly insinuating he got the best of it

“I’ve been honest my whole fuckin’ career. If I’ve been fucked by worst fighters than Kelly in sparring that’s just the way sparring goes. We had a good 10-round sparring the first day, I was happy with it, very happy with it. And he came again on the Friday and ran around the ring.”