Boxing fans are rubbing their hands together in anticipation of one of the most dramatic fights of 2022: Artur Beterbiev vs Joe Smith Jr, two brutal punchers who usually show no mercy to their opponents.. At stake is a precious treasure that was of great interest to Saul Canelo Alvarez until Dmitry Bivol crossed his path.
In one of the biggest surprises of the year, Bivol not only retained his WBA World Light heavyweight title, but gave Canelo a boxing lesson and knocked him off the top of the list of the best boxers in the world pound-for-pound. A hard blow for the Mexican.
Once he has assimilated the blow he received, Alvarez seeks to return to the top of boxing with a victory against Gennady Golovkin, his fiercest rival, whom he will face for the third time in his career, in a fight scheduled for September 17, with probable location in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the T-Mobile Arena. For his part, Dmitry Bivol would be in the process of confirming his next opponent as soon as possible.
The greatness of Beterbiev vs Smith Jr that was taken away from Canelo Alvarez
The table was apparently set for Canelo Alvarez to irremediably enter boxing’s Olympus. After being proclaimed the first Undisputed World Super middleweight Champion in history, his route to greatness was to strip Bivol of the WBA version of the 175-pound world championship and then seek an unparalleled feat: to unify in that division as well.
That’s where the Artur Beterbiev vs Joe Smith Jr. fight comes into the equation. This June 18 at Madison Square Garden in New York, the Russian and the American will put their Light heavyweight division world championship belts on the line: WBC and IBF (Beterbiev) and WBO (Smith Jr.).
The winner of this train wreck would be the 175 unified World Champion, with only one belt left to become Undisputed, the WBA belt, currently held by Dmitry Bivol, and which was expected to be held by Canelo Alvarez. Now it is Bivol who has raised his hand to face the winner of the Beterbiev vs Smith Jr to become the absolute monarch of this category.
The smell of dynamite and drama is intense at Madison Square Garden. Artur Beterbiev comes into this unification bout with 17 fights under his belt, all won by knockout. Crazy. For his part, Joe Smith Jr, comes in with a record of 28-3-0, and 22 knockouts, irrefutable proof that his size gives him a very respectable knockout power in his fights.