Joe Smith Jr.: record, next fight and profile →
LAS VEGAS – If everything goes according to Dmitry Bivol’s blueprint Saturday night, the unbeaten WBA light heavyweight champion will keep a close eye on what happens June 18 at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater.
Three belts and light heavyweight supremacy will be at stake when WBC/IBF world champion Artur Beterbiev meets WBO champion Joe Smith Jr. in a highly anticipated unification showdown Saturday, June 18, at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden.
Promoter Eddie Hearn thinks Anthony Yarde may be wilting away on the vine. In a recent interview, the head of Matchroom Boxing lambasted Yarde, the British light heavyweight contender and top contender in the WBO, and Yarde’s promoter Frank Warren, for refusing to entertain any other fight besides a potential one against the winner of a planned title unification bout between 175-pound titlists Artur Beterbiev (WBC, IBF) and Joe Smith Jr. (WBO).
World Boxing Council (WBC) President Mauricio Sulaiman recently discussed why his organization is not barring their light heavyweight world champion, Artur Beterbiev, from moving forward with a planned summer unification with WBO champion Joe Smith at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Beterbiev also holds the IBF's world title.
British promoter Frank Warren realizes that he needs to be extra prudent in the matchmaking for his charge Anthony Yarde, since it appears that the hard hitting light heavyweight contender is on the cusp of another shot at a divisional title – or possibly three.
A three-belt light heavyweight unification showdown between Artur Beterbiev and Joe Smith Jr. appears imminent to take place this summer, Top Rank boss Bob Arum has revealed.
Knockout artist Anthony Yarde (22-2, 21 KOs) is the no.1 contender for Joe Smith Jr.’s WBO World Light-Heavyweight title, and that fight is likely to happen this year.
Artur Beterbiev is on the same page as Joe Smith Jr. Beterbiev, the WBC/IBF light heavyweight titleholder from Russia, wants to unify the belts in the division as much as Smith, the WBO light heavyweight titleholder from Mastic, New York, does, according to Marc Ramsay, Beterbiev’s longtime trainer.
Joe DeGuardia, the co-promoter for WBO light heavyweight champion Joe Smith, believes his boxer could eventually land a showdown with Mexican superstar Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez.
Frank Warren sniffs a whiff of desperation from Eddie Hearn’s latest matchmaking proposal. The Queensberry Promotions head gave this thoughts on Hearn’s recent claim that he “made a very big offer” to light heavyweight contender and Warren client Anthony Yarde to face Hearn’s Joshua Buatsi in what would be an attractive all-British dust-up.