ESPN: Jesse Hart vs. Joe Smith Jr. & Cem Kılıç vs. Steven Nelson RBR.

Hart's claiming he injured his hand in sparring. Let's just assume that's true for the sake of argument and I'm not suggesting it is. Why the hell are you rocking B-Hop's Executioner gimp mask for your ring walk if you're incapacitated like that? You talked all that talk about how much avenging your idol's loss meant to you and your city but then still decided to rock the gimp mask in honour of him knowing that you only had one hand? First thing you'd do in that situation is say to yourself ''Hey, maybe it would be a good idea to forget about rocking the gimp mask this time because I'm going to look pretty stupid if I don't pull this off''


'Jesse Hart went out of his way to ask Top Rank to face Joe Smith to avenge the loss to his mentor, Bernard Hopkins.

Hart even made sure he wore a black mask with the ‘X’ through the middle, in devotion to the Hall of Famer.

Smith, the guy standing in the other corner had vanquished Hopkins, stopping “The Executioner” for the first time in the last fight of a distinguished career on Dec. 17, 2017, at the Forum in Inglewood, California.

It was over two years ago and the Hopkins loss still stung Hart, who’s known “B-Hop” since he was a seven-year-old kid taking advice over the phone.

On Saturday night, before 3,415 at the Mark G. Etess Arena of Atlantic City’s Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on ESPN, Hart had a chance to do something about it.

He didn’t.

Smith won a 10-round split-decision taking the fight in dominating fashion on the scorecards of Eugene Grant (97-92) and Joseph Pasquale (98-91), while somehow judge James Kinney saw it 95-94 for Hart.

“I was very confident I was going to get the decision, but the one judge made me a little nervous in there,” said Smith, who admitted the victory was a career-saver after losing two of his last three coming in. “I feel just with the knockdown and the hard shots I landed, I deserved it.

“I thought I had him a few times, but he’s a little slippery. I feel great and I took the summer off, and I worked on moving a little bit.”

Hart did some running in the first round, when Smith (25-3, 20 knockouts) landed a left hook. “The Beast” hurt Hart in the second with a right uppercut, and a straight right wobbled Hart against the ropes.

The opening two rounds seemed to stir some confidence in Smith. But it also led to some carelessness, when Hart (26-3, 21 KOs) popped Smith with a few shots and had Smith flailing at air in the third.

In the fourth, Smith went back to stalking, and Hart went back to slipping and sliding by Smith’s advances. Pressing Hart against the ropes, Smith clocked Hart with a right uppercut. “Hollywood” absorbed it well, but Smith’s confidence again resurfaced.

He landed a right on Hart’s chin, and in his zeal to get at Hart, Smith took a right uppercut in the last 30 seconds of the round.

After four, it was easy to see Smith ahead, 3-1.

A swelling welt began forming under Smith’s right eye in the fifth. Smith already had a welt under his left eye from a punch in the second. When Hart was able to keep Smith away, he was effective, as he was in the fifth. As Smith was charging him, Hart hit him with a left on the side of smith’s head.

Hart began connecting on the 30-year-old Smith from different angles in the sixth. And after six, it was easy to see the fight as a 3-3 fight.


Joe Smith knocks down Jesse Hart in the seventh (Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank)

Whatever reserves Smith had left after six, he summoned them for the seventh. Once again, Smith rattled Hart, and a straight right put Hart down in the last 30 seconds of the seventh. Referee Harvey Dock stepped in as the bell ended the seventh.

But Hart was in trouble entering the eighth.

Hart’s leg were unsteady, but Hart survived.

In the ninth, Smith suffered a cut over his left eye after absorbing another fusillade of punches. Dock had the ringside physician take a look, and Smith continued to punish the 30-year-old Philly fighter.

By the 10th, with Smith seemingly ahead, he still went after Hart, pressing the action.

It just made the whole arena wonder when Jimmy Lennon announced, after some time due to a ringside fight, that it was a split-decision.

“(Hart) has a lot of heart and he’s very tough,” Smith said. “I wanted to keep up the pressure. It would have been nice to get him out the same way (as Hopkins).”

Afterward, Hart claimed he was hurt.

“I hurt my right hand a week ago,” Hart said. “You can see it’s messed up. I don’t want to make no excuses because Joe fought a great fight. I hurt the hand in my last sparring session and thought I could overcome that. Credit to Joe for doing for what he had to do.”

 

I'm going to post this again because it needs to be factored in

Bivol has performed better against virtually all the common opponents he shares with all these elite LHWs. In fact, he rarely ever losses rounds.

18-0 Eleider Alvarez W12MD Isaac Chilemba (many feel Chilemba won)

19-0 Eleider Alvarez W10 UD Robert Berridge (no KDs Berridge took the fight on late notice)

13-0 Bivol WUD12 Isaac Chilemba (Bivol won at least 10 rounds IMO)

8-0 Bivol WTKO4 Robert Berridge (Bivol dropped Berridge x 3)

28-0 Andre Ward WUD12 Sullivan Barrera

12-0 Bivol WTKO12 Sullivan Barrera

20-1 Sullivan Barrera WUD10 Felix Valera (Valera dropped Barrera)

6-0 Bivol WUD12 Felix Valera (Bivol dropped Valera x 2)

23-0-1 Sergey Kovalev WKO7 Cedric Agnew

10-0 Bivol WTKO4 Cedric Agnew

22-0 Eleider Alvarez WMD12 Jean Pascal

14-0 Bivol WUD12 Jean Pascal

Pascal has fought everyone and he gives everyone problems, Bivol is the only fighter to handle him with ease. He schooled Pascal 11-1.

Obviously Kovalev stopped Pascal x 2 so Kovalev>>Bivol in that one but that was The Krusher back when he was punching savagely hard, not the shot one of recent years Clenelo dragged out of the drunk tank.

23-0 Marcus Browne got dropped x 3 and stopped by Pascal

21-0 Marcus Browne was dropped by 18-1-1 Lenin Castillo

16-0 Bivol WUD12 Lenin Castillo (Bivol schooled Castillo and is the only man to drop him)

19-1 Sullivan Barrera WUD10 Joe Smith Jr. (Smith dropped Barrera and was fighting with a badly broken jaw from round 1 onward

15-0 Bivol WUD12 Joe Smith Jr. via shutout

Re. Bivol not scoring an inside the distance win in his last 4 fights

Pretty much, if not all, of the aforementioned fighters have or had a significant weight advantage over Bivol. He was giving away 6lbs to Agnew, 5lbs to Chilemba, 7lbs to Pascal, and he would've been giving away about the same to Sullivan Barrera, Smith Jr, and Lenin Castillo if not more.

Pascal is the toughest SOB 175 has seen in a long time and has only been down twice and I don't even consider one of those KDs legit, the one against Jack.

Smith is a real tough SOB too. He's only been down once IIRC and that was due to him voluntarily turning away and taking a knee because he was in excruciating pain after suffering a broken jaw (in his first loss). And the fact the he pretty much fought the entire fight against Barrera with a badly broken jaw whilst, and this is the most impressive thing about that, being fully aware of the wired jaw hell he would have to endure for the next 6-8 weeks because he'd already been through it all once before, speaks volumes about the size of his plums and his toughness.

Chilemba is teak-tough and super awkward and slippery and has only been stopped once and that was on injury. Only Kovalev and Vlasov have dropped him IIRC.

And Castillo has never been stopped either and has a really good tight guard. Bivol is the only fighter to have dropped him.

Dmitry ''Money'' Bivol is TBE. FACT

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I watched the fight again last night and I'm inclined to believe that Hart did injure his right hand because he was hardly throwing it. That being said, everytime Smith caught him clean he hurt him and he didn't even catch him flush on the sweet spot with a shot that had all his mustard on it either. Had he done so I think he would've laid Hart out on his back for the count. And it would've happened on Saturday night had the ref, who was clearly in the bag, not allowed Hart to hold like an octopus all night everytime Smith managed to track Hart's ass down and get himself into range. I could see from the look in Smith's eyes that he seemed extremely confident during his ring walk and the way he set about Hart right from the get go confirmed that.

Hart has a history of talking a big game and not being able to back up his boasts

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And this is some delusion of the highest order

'The split decision infuriated many at ringside. “It was a terrific fight, and then you have a damn judge who screws it up,” Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said.

“It’s ridiculous,” Star Boxing promoter Joe DeGuardia said.

However, it was encouraging for Hart. “The one judge had it 95-94 my way. So if you look at that, you can tell if I had both of my hands, it wouldn’t even have been close,” Hart said. "He’s not even in my league.”

The judge who scored it for Hart is one of the worst scorecards I've ever seen and it's absolutely scandalous he had Hart winning. The best case you can make in Hart's favour is that he won 2 rounds and I think that's being generous to him and obviously Smith scored a KD too and hurt Hart on numerous other occasions. The ref stopping the action to allow a doctor to inspect Hart's cut was convenient too given how he did so when Hart was hurt and in trouble.

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Hart looked a bit of a dangerman to me down at 168 but I can't ever see him amounting to anything now.