However, Artur Beterbiev grabbed Joe Smith's WBO title and added it to the WBC and IBF belts that Beterbiev held entering the fight with a second-round knockout that left observers stunned by its speed and violence as Beterbiev did to Smith what had never been done before his career.
Now Smith had been beaten and even soundly in decision losses to Sullivan Barrera and later to WBA champion Dmitry Bivol but Barrera had broken Smith's jaw early in the bout and Smith still lasted to the final bell, and Bivol had been badly hurt by Smith late in their fight and never came close to hurting or knocking him down in a lopsided unanimous decision win.
And that is why this win was so impressive- not that Beterbiev knocked Smith out but how he accomplished the victory as every time that Beterbiev landed a power punch, Smith involuntarily moved and when fighters that had previously proven their chin as the sturdy Smith had done over his career have that type of difficulty taking punishment- it's an impressive win!
Smith tried to bang with Beterbiev and he was throwing big shots in the first round, so this wasn't an example of an intimidated fighter, Smith was trying to win, he simply couldn't compete with a fighter that takes Smith's best quality- power and comes back with even more power.
Beterbiev scored a knockdown late in the first round and early in the second that dazed Smith more than hurt him but it was a different story for the second knockdown when Beterbiev scored another knockdown when only the ropes held Smith up with the referee correctly counting that as a knockdown.
The fight was stopped shortly thereafter when Smith wobbled around the ring from every shot before being saved from more punishment.
Beterbiev walked through the punches of a strong puncher and took him out quickly- One cannot ask for more than that.
As for what's next for the man that Timothy Bradley dubbed "The Terminator" on the ESPN broadcast, most would love to see Beterbiev against WBA champion Dmitry Bivol for all four championships but that appears to be a 2023 fight at best.
Beterbiev will travel to the UK for a mandatory challenger in the WBO- England's Anthony Yarde in the fall, while Bivol could fight his mandatory in the WBA (and that is no easy task), former super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez or take a stay-busy fight as Bivol waits for his agreed-to rematch against Canelo Alvarez.
Anthony Yarde earned his second try at the WBO belt last December when he avenged his December 2020 split decision loss to countryman Lyndon Arthur with a fourth-round knockout to replace Arthur in that position.
Yarde's first challenge ended in the eleventh round in a 2019 challenge of then-champion Sergey Kovalev and while Yarde's twenty-one knockouts in his twenty-two wins look impressive, only his win over Lyndon Arthur was over a world-class opponent and while he accounted for himself well against Kovalev, he weakened badly before the stoppage.
As for Beterbiev-Bivol, it will be an interesting fight but Bivol was rocked badly in his win over Joe Smith and unless Bivol moves for twelve rounds and makes a dull affair, I would favor Beterbiev in that fight.
In the co-feature, former two-time Olympic gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez stepped up his game with a one-punch knockout of previously undefeated Abraham Nova in the fifth round for the best win of his career in a featherweight ten-rounder.
Ramirez didn't stick and move and instead changed his usual tactics and decided to walk to Nova and overpower him in winning three of the first four rounds on my card before knocking Nova cold with one left hand in the fifth round.
It was the best win of his career for Ramirez, who looked like a fighter of his background rather than his lackluster early fights that even the most ardent Ramirez fan could understandably wonder where Ramirez could be headed in his career.
Boxing Challenge
TRS: 111 Pts (4)
Ramon Malpica: 96 Pts (4)
Vince Samano: 90 Pts (4)
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