‘Beefy’ was set to contest the interim WBO title at 154 pounds until Smith came in almost two pounds over at the weigh-in on Friday.
Smith was given two hours to lose the excess weight, although a mix-up meant the Liverpool man thought he only had an hour and passed up the opportunity.
In a social media post, Smith was apologetic over the unprofessionalism shown prior to what will be his comeback bout from a loss to Canelo Alvarez.
“Firstly, I would like to apologize to all my team, Team Williams, to Frank and the WBO,” said Smith.
“After a good training camp, I misjudged the weight and couldn’t do anymore this morning. It’s been a long time – seven months – since I last made the championship weight.
“No excuses though, I f***** up, but can I clarify that today I was told TWICE that I had ONE HOUR to make the weight limit which I decided wasn’t long enough and would have been dangerous and detrimental to me if I did so.
“To find out forty minutes later that I actually had TWO HOURS, which would have 100% changed my mind in trying to lose the weight.
“This is the first time I’ve had to lose weight in eight years. Like I said, I apologize. The fight still goes ahead and believe me, my punishment in not being able to win the belt, is hurting enough – trust me.”
It should be noted opponent Williams comfortably made the 154 pound limit and can claim the interim WBO belt at stake for the bout.
Picture by Kyte Monroe / Banner
In the main event from Manchester Arena, WBO Lightweight world champion Terry Flanagan weighed in at 134.5 lbs while number two-ranked Petr Petrov checked in at 134.6 lbs for Saturday’s WBO Lightweight world title fight.
The live stream of Saturday’s Championship fight will be available in the US for free to logged-in and logged-out users exclusively on Twitter and connected devices in the United States. Access to the live stream will be available Saturday night at boxing.twitter.com and on @BannerBoxing at 5 PM ET.
