It wasn't as the usually slow-starting Beterbiev aggressively bullied Smith from the beginning of the fight and never stopped in delivering a punishing attack that left Smith swollen and bruised around both eyes and knocking him down for the first time in his career with Smith hitting the mat twice in the seventh round before Smith's trainer Buddy McGirt entering the ring to surrender for his fighter honorably.
Smith did have some success hitting Beterbiev but the punches didn't have any effect and they could not slow the attack of the thirty-nine-year-old Russian native, now a Canadian citizen.
Beterbiev looked terrific in grinding the gallant Smith down. The win should see the long-hoped-for unification fight between Beterbiev and WBA champion Dmitry Bivol in the summer in Saudi Arabia.
The Beterbiev-Bivol fight is so intriguing because you can make a legitimate case for Betebiev breaking Bivol down or Bivol brilliantly outboxing Beterbiev for twelve rounds.
Super middleweight contender, Christian Mbilli battered Rohan Murdock before Murdock's corner stopped the fight after round six.
Murdock gave all he had and tried bravely but took the full arsenal of the varied offense of Mbilli and took far too much punishment than he deserved.
Mbilli looks to be ready for the best in the division and I'd give him a live chance against any of the top fighters at 168, which includes Canelo Alvarez and David Benavidez.
The best fight of the night saw Jason Moloney retain his WBO bantamweight title with a hard-fought majority decision over Saul Sanchez.
The fight was a bit marred by several clashes of heads on the inside, cutting Moloney in the early rounds and leaving both men bloody by the end of the fight, with several strong battles in the trenches.
Several close rounds could go to either fighter, so my score of 115-113 for Sanchez was the outlier on the cards of 114-114 and 116-112 x2 for Moloney.
Boxing Challenge
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