Liam Smith set to return on June 4 in Liverpool

Liam Smith has a date and venue for his second WBO junior middleweight title defense, as "Beefy" will be back on June 4 at Echo Arena in Liverpool, with an opponent to be named.

Smith (22-0-1, 12 KO) won the vacant title against John Thompson on October 10, and followed that with a quick return in an easy defense against Jimmy Kilrain Kelly on December 19. Smith's name has been bounced around a good bit ever since he won the belt, but expectations for this fight should probably be fairly low.

Here's why, a look at the WBO's top 15 contenders as of now:

1. Austin Trout, fighting Jermall Charlo on May 21
2. Miguel Cotto, almost certainly not going to Liverpool for a fight
3. Michel Soro
4. Demetrius Andrade, fighting Willie Nelson on June 11
5. Patrick Teixeira, fighting Curtis Stevens on May 7
6. Oleksandr Spyrko
7. Vanes Martirosyan, fighting Erislandy Lara on May 21
8. Sirmongkol Singwancha
9. Predrag Radosevic
10. Yuki Nonaka
11. Ahmet Patterson
12. Liam Williams
13. Patryk Szmanski
14. Stepan Horvath
15. Henrri D. Polanco

A fight with Soro (27-1-1, 17 KO), the reigning European champion and the highest ranked available contender, would be interesting, and maybe the actual best available fight here. But we'll have to see. The opponent is on this list, though.