The look of disbelief on the face of Paul Smith, when the score-cards were read out last night, in Kiel, was matched by that on the face of his promoter Eddie Hearn.
In the post-fight official interview, Eddie Hearn declared that he has decided to canvas the WBO to make Paul Smith their mandatory challenger to Arthur Abraham?s crown.
Whether he?ll succeed or not remains to be seen but this is what Eddie had to say to those gathered in Kiel,
‘First of all, it was a great fight, Arthur is a great champion and thank-you to him and Kalle (Sauerland) for giving us this opportunity.?
‘The response from everybody says it all. It was a close fight. When I got in the ring I felt and expected Arthur to get a decision, to be honest.?
‘But the way that the judges scored that fight is disgusting.’
‘Scoring is subjective and if Arthur had won it 115-114 then you take it on the chin.?
‘But 119-109 is just not right in the sport of boxing.?
‘We will be appealing to the WBO, not for an immediate rematch because we don’t think that possible because we know how the system works.?
‘But because we feel Paul Smith should be installed as the immediate mandatory for Arthur Abraham. He hasn’t had a mandatory for a while. I’m sure we’ll have some competition but we’d love to do the fight again.?
‘It was a very, very close fight whichever way you look at it. And there are now 30-40,000 Scousers who would come out and watch that fight.’
‘In the record books he will not get the respect he deserves for the closeness of this fight.’
But whilst Paul Smith?s desire to fight Abraham again might shine through, there is the prospect we could be doing it all again with Abraham supposedly telling Smith,
‘I’ll fight you again whenever you want.’
Shame he didn?t mention wherever as well as whenever as this one has the Liverpool Arena stamped all over it!
Hearn Wants Smith Named Mandatory Challenger
