By Steve Kim
Boxing can be - and is - a funny business. Case in point, July 15th. On this night at the Forum in Los Angeles, Joe Smith, who is a Long Island native, will be facing Sullivan Barrera as part of an HBO triple-header. Meanwhile at the Nassau Coliseum near Long Island, a PBC on Fox card will be taking place.
Coming off his banner 2016, Joe DeGuardia - the head of Star Boxing - had talked openly about having Smith headline a show in his hometown.
"Certainly it would've been a great thing to do, to have a fight out in Long Island or even Madison Square Garden. I know what kind of gate we could do with Joe and I know what kind of business we can do with him and it would certainly be great to pull him back into New York where we developed him before the (Andrzej) Fonfara and (Bernard) Hopkins fights,'' said DeGuardia to BoxingScene.com.
"But ultimately when you're putting deals together you've got to weigh a lot of factors and in this particular deal this was the date that was available to us on a major network, HBO."
Back in December as Smith sent Hopkins out of the ring and into retirement, he did so at the Forum.
"If we have to travel back to L.A. and go back to the Forum where he had one of his most spectacular victories, a knockout over Bernard Hopkins, then so be it. And frankly we'll build him up as the bi-coastal common man," stated Deguardia, who had hopes of making an all-Long Island match-up between Smith and Seanie Monaghan.
Monaghan is on the July 15th card at Nassau Coliseum where he is paired against Marcus Browne.
Is there any chance of Smith-Monaghan still taking place in the future?
"To me, it was ripe, right now. It would've been a great fight, right now," said Deguardia.
"Can it be something in the future? Sure, if Seanie stays undefeated and can we connect in the future? Obviously, yes we can. I'm disappointed that that particular fight didn't take place in April or sooner. I was ready to make that fight, as well. But there are many factors in making a fight, many things that come into play - including not just the fighter on the other side but his team as well."
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.