Seriously. This guy has eaten bombs before. Fought with a broken jaw. And had never been knocked down. Hes 6ft tall and strong as hell. The FIRST decent punch Beterbiev lands on Smith and he starts to turn off Joe's brain. Dude was wobbling all over the place and discombobulated. Anything Beterbiev touches with either glove gets destroyed. Doesnt matter what hand, what punch, what angle, where the punch lands. If he hits you on the shoulder it's done for the night. He hits your head and you need a hospital visit. To the body? And you want to throw up. Anything he hits stays hurt. It's not like a Pacquiao or RJJ shot that really stings and knocks you down, but you recover a round or 2 later. He lands and you're ****ed the rest of the night.
He fought the wrong fight. At this point was he expected to fight any other way then straight foward, no but he could have fought behind the jab a bit more. No excuses, beter came to kill and Joe gave him all the openings. No way does Beter fight that way against Bivol though. Make it happen next, no more stalling.
Joe's strategy was pretty blunt and down right kamikaze-esque. He couldn't outbox him or even bully him for the most part, and I guess he and his team realized he should go for broke and pray he lands a haymaker. Obviously it didn't happen.
He never ran or held. He tried to fight fire with fire and immediately continued to do so after every KD. He even ran at Artur after the first KD. Whilst it only lasted two rounds he ate a lot of flush bombs in quick succession and I don't care who you are or how tough you are if Artur is catching you clean like that with that many full power bombs in quick succession, especially round the temple area, you're going to be in a world of trouble. I said beforehand that I kept seeing imagery of Smith on wobbly legs flash through my mind when I thought about how it would play out and as big a fan as I am of Artur I really didn't enjoy being proven right about that because Smith is such a genuinely nice and humble guy and he's a warrior too.
When you have an iron chinned fighter on your hands, just club them over the back of the head repeatedly when they're bending forward, lunging in with a punch. Every knockdown Beterbiev scored tonight was questionable. Was Joe hurt? Yes, slightly. Did Joe ever do anything but touch a knee down or slump along the ropes? Nope. DId Joe ever leave his feet? Nope. But Beterbiev's countless nudging blows that knocked Joe off balance certainly helped to paint the picture in the ref's mind that it needed to be stopped. Beterbiev aside from the clubbing rabbit punches he landed on Gvozdyk, that were so numerous that they caused bruising to the back of The Nail's brain, has learned a new wrinkle. Sidestep your opponent as he rushes in like a bull, clonk your opponent in the back/side of the head, using their own momentum against them, since it was clear he couldn't drop him with pure clean punches to the face, they lose balance, go down and voila! Match over. We got a Chechen Andre Ward on our hands. He's going to be unstoppable. Next up, he'll go on a savage rampage of ballshot KO's.
Lol, this was a funny post. But come on man, Smith was hurt. He was wobbling and losing his motor skills. His brain was turning off. The ref has to protect Joe's Brain. On one hand I wanted a more competitive fight, but Joe's all in aggressive strategy saved him from a career ending beatdown. He will live to fight another day. Unlike Gvozdyk who made Beterbiev chase him around the ring and slowly beat on him. Joe was like here I am mother****er.
I think there are some hard truths in what you say. I must say I haven't really watched any of Beterbiev. When I saw the Smith Jr stoppage, I thought, oof that is border line. But you know it's boxing, defend yourself at all times. Then I saw a couple of stoppages people posted on to here, and I was like, the guy is clubbing people around the ears and top of the head. Then I thought, let's have a look at his KO highlight reel. This content is protected I got to 5 minutes and all but one involved him aiming shots to the back of the head. No, this isn't a case of opponents moving and him clipping them by accident. It is a tactic he employs. Bivol will need a strong referee
Exactly, in regards to a potential Bivol match, and him utilizing these dirtish tricks as tactics, I already beat you to it in the RBR. https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/artur-asilbekovich-beterbiev-vs-joe-smith-jr-robeisy-ramÃrez-vs-abraham-nova-rbr.688166/page-41#post-21770625 I also went in hard on him on the Gvozdyk RBR right after that match ended for the intentional rabbit punches. Yeah, he's a very sly dirty fighter, because he makes it look like it's an organic part of his fighting style, and his opponent's fault, when the reality is, he's putting them into the position to do that to them, and sneakily gets away with it.
First you made a thread about wanting to go to gay parades... Then you admitted that you focused on a boxer's package in an avatar pic... And now this sus thread title...
Being repeatedly clubbed on the back and side of the head will do that to you. Go back and watch, every shot that put Joe down on a knee, was a borderline questionable one.
No. Ydksab. He fought the only strategy that gave him a chance. He lost. Against the truly scariest boxer around right now.
