Callum Smith had fight negotiations with Saul "Canelo" Alvarez fall apart earlier this year, and the current coronavirus pandemic has the WBA (Super) super middleweight champion thinking about other enticing fights he could make in the division.
"Mundo" joined a recent Instagram Live chat with Eddie Hearn and spoke with the Matchroom Boxing USA president about the failed Canelo fight talks and why a bout with Daniel Jacobs would make sense if title unification bouts aren't on the table for him once COVID-19 subsides.
"It was a weird situation because obviously it was an exciting situation to be in of having a 50-50 chance of landing the biggest fight possible," Smith said about being in talks with Alvarez earlier this year. "It was also frustrating. It dragged on for quite a long time. But it's one of them that I didn't get the fight, but I have no regrets."
Along those lines, Smith added that he even dropped his number to lower than what WBO super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders was asking for to fight Canelo in another bout that seems up in the air, if not canceled altogether, due to the pandemic and also Saunders recently having his boxing license suspended.
In hindsight, Smith said: "I just don't think I was ever getting the fight anyway, but it was exciting at the time being in the negotiations."
That fallout has Smith (27-0, 19 KOs) looking toward other big fights in the division. While acknowledging the enticement of fighting a fellow 168-pound world champ in Saunders, Caleb Plant or David Benavidez first, Smith believes a bout with Daniel Jacobs would be a "massive fight" to hold in London or New York City if a title unification bout can't happen soon enough.
"I believe I'm the best in the world at 168 and I'd beat anyone in the division," Smith said during the IG Live chat, which Jacobs made sure to check out. "(Jacobs) got a big profile in the States and the UK, so it's definitely a fight ... if I don't get to fight with another champion, a unification fight, then it's probably the fight that makes sense more than any other one."
Jacobs (36-3, 30 KOs) made Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. quit on his stool after the fifth round of their fight in December, giving "The Miracle Man" his first career victory at super middleweight.