Liam Smith: Canelo "massively" ducked Golovkin, fighting me at 154 to save face

WBO junior middleweight titlist Liam Smith is set to defend his belt against Canelo Alvarez on Sept. 17th. And when Smith recently promoted the fight by hosting an "Ask Me Anything" session on Reddit, he answers fan's questions about the Canelo fight and his thoughts on Canelo not signing on to face Gennady Golovkin. Here are some excepts from the Q&A session.

On any weaknesses he sees in Canelo:

"I don't want to give too many of his weaknesses away. Certainly not now. He's got a lot of weaknesses. He doesn't like fighting three minutes of each round. That's one of them that's not really hard to see."

On if he has prepared for Canelo to enter the ring around 175lbs on fight night:

"Yes, I've sparred with my two brothers Paul and Callum. They're a lot bigger than Canelo, believe me. I've done enough. When you say Canelo comes in 175, that sounds like more realistic. If he comes in 175 that's good I come in 172 173 myself. I've said since the day the fight was made weight will not be a factor in this fight."

On if he thinks Canelo ducked Gennady Golovkin:

"Yeah, ducked him massively. He went the wrong way about it. He know he's being criticized a lot and losing a lot of fans about the way he did it. If he was open and honest about it people would have understood. If he said look at the moment I'm not 160 GGG wouldn't come down. If he said look I'll fight you in 12 months time, I'm going to build myself to 160 and he'd have bought himself grace. But the way he went about it after the fight with Cotto he got Triple G in the ring and said he'd put the gloves back on. Then after the fight he said he the thing about his balls, he built the fans up about fighting him next and then he gave the belt up. I just think he went about it the wrong way."

On the fight taking place at 154lbs as opposed to Canelo's usual preference of 155lbs:

"I would have taken the fight at 155. I can make 155 and I can even do 156. The negotiation was 154 and i understood why because he has to save face to look respectful. For him to give his middleweight title up he has to come back to 154. That's why I was always confident I could get the fight. It would be embarrassing if he ducked Golovkin and didn't. I knew he had to come to 154 from their point of view he beats me and is back a champion at 154. I can make 154 I'm not fighting GGG at 160. That was their excuse."