Boxing Challenge! Smith knocks out Matias

   Most people thought Dalton Smith had a chance to upset Subriel Matias in his attempt to take the WBC junior welterweight title from Matias.

Few thought that Smith could knock out Matias, who had shown a strong chin in his many slugfests, but Smith surprised everyone with a fifth-round KO to lift the WBC title from Matias in New York City.

The fight was filled with toe-to-toe combat, and with Smith bleeding from a cut over his left eye, Matias seemed to be edging ahead in what promised to be a bruising affair.

Smith ended all of that when he landed a right hand in the fifth that took away the legs of the champion, and as he wobbled, a second right hand dropped him face-first to the floor.

Matias managed to reach his feet, but his legs were clearly not listening to him, and the fight was waved off.

I had Matias slightly ahead 39-37 at the time of the stoppage.

Smith will meet former champion Alberto Puello next in a WBC-mandated bout.

Puello lost his title to Matias last year in a close fight, so he's a deserving challenger and should test Smith.

Smith moves to the top of a division filled with talented young champions (Teofimo Lopez WBO, Gary Antuanne Russell WBA, and Richardson Hitchens IBF) and could make good matches with any of them should he defeat Puello.

Matias may have taken a step back after being knocked out, as his style is built on wearing fighters down until they wear out.

Now that his chin has shown some vulnerability, Matias could be at the beginning of a slide down the division, and his next fight is worth watching to see how being knocked out for the first time will affect him.

In Germany, heavyweight contender Agit Kabayel survived a strong first round from Damian Knyba to score a third-round stoppage.

Knyba landed several right hands in an aggressive first round and bruised Kabayel around his left eye, but the German landed well in the second round before hurting a dazed Knyba with right hands of his own.

I thought the ending could have been a little premature, but I think Kabayel would have ended the fight anyway, so Knyba was spared some punishment.

Boxing Challenge

Kabayel should be in line for a possible future challenge of Oleksandr Usyk, who owns three of the four heavyweight titles, but a potential fight against recently promoted WBO champion Fabio Wardley (Usyk vacated that title after his win over Daniel DuBois) would be an almost-guaranteed firefight.

TRS: (3) 

Ramon Malpica: (2)

Vince Samano: (1)