The only fight in the challenge comes from ESPN and Top Rank as Joe Smith defends his WBO light heavyweight championship for the first time against last-minute replacement Steve Geffrard in Verona, New York.
Smith won a debatable majority decision over Maxim Vlasov ( I scored Vlasov a 115-113 winner) to win the vacant title last April and has had a few fights canceled for various reasons since.
Smith is best known for his power which has brutally stopped former WBO champion Elieder Alvarez, former title challenger Andrej Fonfara, and ended the career of all-time Bernard Hopkins but he was outboxed badly in his losses to WBA champion Dmitry Bivol in 2019 and to then-contender Sullivan Barrera in 2017 before his issues with the awkward Vlasov.
Smith's original opponent would have made a very interesting matchup in Great Britain's Callum Johnson, an aggressive hard-hitting bomber that floored WBC and IBF champion Artur Beterbiev in the second round in their 2018 battle before Beterbiev finished Johnson off in the fourth.
Instead, due to Covid, we get an extremely last-minute replacement in Steve Geffrard, who has won eighteen straight since losing his first two pro fights but other than an eight-round decision win over aging former fringe contender Denis Grachev, has defeated no one of note.
Geffrard is a complete unknown in what he brings to the table against Smith, who hits as hard as anyone light heavyweight other than Artur Beterbiev and a sturdy chin to boot, and based on the resume is overmatched.
Still, Geffrard has a good amateur background and as Smith showed in his past defeats, Smith can be outboxed.
The question is can Geffrard take that punch well and if so, does he has enough skills to outbox Smith?
I'd say no, but there just isn't enough data on Geffrard to really know.
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