Smith withdraws from fight against Ali

An allergic reaction has caused a skin condition not allowing Smith to train.

Liam Smith is out of his scheduled May 12 HBO main event with Sadam Ali, as he’s suffering from a skin condition that has not allowed him to train.

From ESPN:

“Frank (Warren) told me (Smith) had some sort of allergic reaction to something that led to a skin condition and he can’t train for about three weeks, a month,” (Golden Boy’s Eric) Gomez said. “Frank was asking me what can we do. My initial thought is to try to save the show so right now I am going to see what I can do, see if I can find a new opponent.”

Golden Boy is working with very short notice here, so expectations have to be tempered, if they’re going to be able to save the show at all.

ESPN reports that the two main names being looked at as replacements are prospect Rashidi Ellis (19-0, 13 KO), and former Smith opponent Liam Williams (17-2-1, 12 KO), who battled Smith to a pair of very close losses. As replacements on a few weeks’ notice, neither are too bad.

Ali (26-1, 14 KO) is looking to make the first defense of his WBO junior middleweight title, which he won by retiring Miguel Cotto last December in New York.