Szpilka: Joe Smith Got Lucky, Fonfara Beats Him in a Rematch

By Luke Furman

This past Saturday night in Chicago, every saw what should be the current leading candidate for Upset of The Year, as unknown light heavyweight contender Joe Smith Jr. (22-1, 18 KOs) pulled off a shocking upset with a first round knockout of highly ranked and heavily favored Andrzej Fonfara (28-4, 16 KOs) at the UIC Pavilion.

Fonfara was start to tag Smith, but Polish fighter left himself wide open and was countered by a right hand that sent down on his back. He beat the count, wobbling all over the ring and never full recovered.

Smith Jr. continued to press the attack and landed a combination that sent Fonfara down and he appeared to be nearly out. Fonfara once again beat the count but he was too shaky to continue, forcing referee Hector Afu to stop the fight at 2:32 into the first round.

Fonfara's countryman, heavyweight contender Artur Szpilka, felt Smith connected with a lucky punch and fully expects Fonfara to win a rematch. He says Fonfara made a big mistake, once he got up from the first knockdown, by not holding to run out the clock. Instead Fonfara stood right in front of Smith and tried to trade punches with little to no head movement and that allowed Smith to connect with more hard shots.

"It seems to me that if there is a rematch, Andrzej should calmly beat him. I was convinced of his victory [on Saturday], and perhaps Andrzej also overlooked this opponent a little bit. It is unfortunate that this happened, but he will have to draw his own conclusions, improve his defense and come back. It is a pity that a rematch with Stevenson [will continue to get dragged out]," Szpilka stated.

"What does not kill us makes us stronger. The only reason I can find fault [on Fonfara's part] was the fact that at the time of [the right hand hurting him], he  [didn't stick close to his opponent and instead] wanted to fight and respond. For me, [this loss] was just pure coincidence."

Luke Fureman covers boxing for bokser.org