Joe Smith's Promoter Eyes Adonis Stevenson, Big Names at 175

By Steve Kim

It's a whole new world for Joe Smith Jr. (22-1, 18KOs) after shocking the heavily favored and highly regarded Andrzej Fonfara this past weekend in front of a national audience on NBC. Coming in as a sizable underdog, Smith scored a stunning first round TKO.

The native of Long Island, New York is now suddenly a player at light heavyweight.

"Obviously we have a lot of options. The doors are all open to us,' 'said Joe DeGuardia, who's company Star Boxing promotes Smith."We're going to evaluate and look, my minds open to everything. I'm looking for big fights for him and he's 26 years old, he can punch, he's good looking, he's Irish, from New  York, huge fan-base here and in many respects like the 'every Joe' working guy in the country.

Smith's day job is that of a construction worker.

"He's used to getting up in the morning and goes to work. He's a union worker and he's somebody that people in the country can identify with," said DeGuardia. "Meanwhile on Saturday night he lived the American dream. All his hard work paid off."

And according to the promoter there is no rematch clause for the Fonfara fight. DeGuardia is looking at all the big names at 175-pounds, including WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (who next month will face Thomas Williams). The win over Fonfara gave Smith the WBC International title, which is going to significantly increase his ranking in their top ten. Fonfara was ranked at 2 by the WBC, 3 by the WBA and 4 by the WBO.

As for Smith's immediate future, DeGuardia told BoxingScene.com - "He wants to get in right way, and he wants to be busy. We've kept him busy since we signed him so I'd like to get him moving quickly. Adonis Stevenson has a fight in July so that's out there and I want to see what the stories are with all the other big names in the game and hopefully early fall will be our target."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.