Liam Smith takes swipe at domestic rival and trainer

LIAM SMITH pulled no punches with his opinions on Josh Kelly and trainer Adam Booth last night.

The former WBO super-welterweight champion spoke to Boxing News after watching the action at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool where gym-mates Jack Turner and Jadier Herrera won in impressive fashion.

Smith was scheduled to fight Kelly on September 21 at Wembley Stadium but withdrew due to illness which he believed to be Covid. Kelly went on to fight late replacement Ishmael Davis, defeating ‘The Black Panther’ by majority decision after 12 rounds.

Later that evening, Kelly’s trainer, Adam Booth, told BN that a fight against Smith would not be revisited. “That’s in the rear view mirror,” Booth said. “Wasted months on that one. A world title or a big fight (next).”

Speaking on Kelly’s performance, Smith said: “I’d have walked through Josh Kelly.

“[He’s] dangerous when he twitches for three rounds then after that he survived with Ishmael on six days’ notice.”

Smith then gave this response to Booth’s comments that they were now moving on and having nothing more to do with fighting Smith.

“That’s Adam for you. He tries to be clever, he tries to be manipulative with words. He tries to be smug about it.”

“They need me to make a good fight,” he continued.

“Otherwise he’s [Kelly] in s***e fights. Let’s be realistic he stunk the yard out, no-one was talking about him.

“I’m pretty sure they [Riyadh Season] won’t be in a rush to use Josh and Adam Booth again.”