Earlier this week, Eddie Hearn mentioned some possible opponents that he could line up against Callum Smith in the near future, including Billy Joe Saunders, Gennadiy Golovkin and even Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. Smith's trainer, Joe Gallagher, additionally told Sky Sports that "Mundo" wants "big-name U.S.-based fighters like Sergey Kovalev, Canelo, David Benavidez and Caleb Plant."
Well, any thoughts of any of those fights might need to be paused. On Thursday, the World Boxing Association (WBA) Championships Committee ordered a fight between its "super" super middleweight champion and mandatory challenger John Ryder.
"Rule number 11 says that the champion must fight the mandatory challenger every nine months from the date he became a champion," the WBA explained on its website. "In the case of Smith, he won the belt on September 28th of 2018 and the period expired on June 27th of this year. Now, Ryder must be fought, as he earned the right to dispute the belt."
After defeating George Groves to win the World Boxing Super Series and WBA “super” super middleweight title last September, Smith made his first title defense via a third-round TKO of Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam in June.
Hearn did tell Sky Sports that he's eyeing an October fight for Smith and an even bigger bout for the spring of 2020. Perhaps Smith will have to handle Ryder first.
If the 29-year-old Smith (26-0, 19 KOs) does indeed face Ryder (28-4, 16 KOs) next, he'd be fighting a fellow Brit, who has won four bouts in a row.
Ryder is coming off a TKO of Bilal Akkawy in May to become the WBA interim super middleweight champion.