One was an era ender. Another looked like he might be.
This Saturday (ESPN+, 7:30 PM EST), 36-year old former WBO light heavyweight titlist Eleider Alvarez (25-1, 13 KO) and Joe Smith Jr. (25-3, 20 KO) lock horns to stay in the most relevant parts of the conversation in their time.
If both Alvarez and Smith have already reached the highest heights of their careers, it would be no surprise. It would be no shame either.
Someone was going to be the man who saw the great Bernard Hopkins off to retirement. Smith was there at the right time, on the right night, to be the man to do it. Handing Hopkins the lone stoppage loss of his career, the knockdown that sent the “Executioner” out of the ring was a perfect accident of poignant symbolism.
In the end, Hopkins had to be forcibly removed from the ring.
Smith hasn’t had another moment like it since but there have still been rewards. He’s 2-2 following the Hopkins win with losses to Sullivan Barrera and Dmitry Bivol but the latter was a crack at a WBA belt. Win or lose this weekend, Smith can know he got a shot.
Alvarez knows how hard getting a shot can be. He waited years for anyone with a major belt to line up with him and made good when the moment arrived. Behind on the cards, Alvarez blasted Sergey Kovalev in the summer of 2018. A critical piece of the light heavyweight puzzle for most of the previous decade, it was easy to think Alvarez had put a final stamp on a lengthy run first derailed by the outstanding Andre Ward.
It turned out waiting to get a shot and finally winning when it arrived was a much different game than keeping the strap. Alvarez was soundly outboxed in the rematch, leaving Canelo Alvarez to likely end Kovalev’s run near the top of 175 lbs. once and for all.
The winner this weekend won’t be the best in class or even the most compelling threat to an Artur Beterbiev or Bivol. It will be enough to remain a threat in general. Both Alvarez and Smith rated in the top ten by TBRB, Ring, ESPN, and Boxing Monthly among other press ratings around. Each is also found in the top ten for the WBC and WBO.
Defeat creates a hard road back to where they both clearly want to be.
Winning leaves the door open for at least one more big chance.
Boxing is struggling across multiple platforms to reestablish its audience in the wake of COVID. The product in the ring for much of this summer was a placeholder for a better schedule now in full swing. Ratings should rise by the end of the year.
Get nervous if they don’t.
For hardcore fight fans, the in-ring product should still be judged healthy.
While there is plenty of debate to be had about which weight classes are the most compelling, it’s hard to find an uncompelling division at the moment. There are a few but there is more than just quality at the tippy top of most weights right now. Even with promotional and network divides, there is a lot to look forward to right now all over the scale.
Alvarez-Smith is a fight that points to that health. It’s a good, solid fight that means something to the competitors and the big picture outside the title level.
In the ring, it might have the sort of combination of styles that make the action as interesting as the desperate stakes at play for both competitors. One door will stay open. The other might not slam shut but the light through the crack in the frame will dim greatly.
Cliff’s Notes…
Dillian Whyte-Alexander Povetkin is the sort of crossroads heavyweight scrap we get when the division has some depth. It’s quality stuff from DAZN and they need it given a battle brewing with the draw they went all in on in Saul Alvarez...Doom Patrol and Stargirl are the best live action products to come out of the DC Universe app. They appear destined for futures on other outlets which says a lot for their quality. They earned an audience...Shawn Porter could probably be good TV shadow boxing but one wonders how many more times he can put forth the effort he has to for success. His performance against Errol Spence made it easy to forget his flat performance against Yordenis Ugas but Porter’s best style might not be one that ages well. It will be interesting to see where he is against Sebastian Formella whom he should handle regardless...A tip of the cap to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The start was rough but it was some great genre TV on the whole that improved steadily over the years...It would be great to look forward to a Terence Crawford-Keith Thurman fight. Social media catcalling about why we probably won’t is anything but.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, a member of the International Boxing Research Organization, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
