For many months, fans have been eagerly anticipating the conclusion of the World Boxing Super Series super middleweight finals and now at the tournament's conclusion, a new world champion has been crowned in Callum Smith.
Fighting in the first boxing card in the history of Saudi Arabia, Smith knocked out George Groves in the seventh round to win the WBSS super middleweight tournament. As a result, Smith also won Groves' WBA "super" super middleweight title and captured the vacant Ring Magazine
The fight started off slowly as both men were cautiously waiting for the other to come forward. In the meantime, Groves and Smith threw the occasional jab, but Smith's right hand was the more dominant hand between the two boxers.
At numerous times in the fight, Smith hurt Groves with right hands upstairs and the now-former champion could not find an answer for it. But even though Smith's right hand broke down Groves at times, it was Smith's left hand that was the deciding blow. Smith landed a flush left hook to Groves and Groves was stunned in the corner while Smith bullied Groves with almost a dozen unanswered power punches. Groves went down on one knee and did not get back up, awarding Smith the victory.
At the time of the stoppage, there was no boxer ahead on more than one scorecard. One judge had Groves winning 59-55, another had Smith winning 59-55 and the third judge had the fight dead even at 57-57. On its live coverage page, Fightful had Smith ahead on its scorecard 58-56 after six rounds.
It is Smith's first world title victory after holding the European, British and English titles at 168 pounds. Smith's record improves to 25-0 while Groves now falls to 28-4, ending his reign as the WBA champion at 16 months.
This fight concludes the first season of the World Boxing Super Series, which also featured Oleksandr Usyk defeat Murat Gassiev to become the undisputed cruiserweight champion. The second season, which starts in early October, will feature a second cruiserweight tournament, a junior welterweight and bantamweight tournament.
