Joe Smith Jr. vs. Maxim Sergeyevich Vlasov & Efe Ajagba vs. Brian Howard RBR.

This is business.
Young prospect with good fight record from proper country ( U.K , U.S or Mexico ) is more suitable for business called professional boxing.

This is business and not a sport.
Sport is stadium MT not pro boxing.
Pro boxing is to build a brand and sell this brand. Preferably from proper country to get more tickets and ppv sales.

 

Bivol would have worked the body more and not let Vlasov dictate the distance. I think those are the reasons Joe failed last night.

At one point Joe Smith Jr triple-pumped a jab into Vlasov's face. Vlasov seemed shocked. Joe never did anything like that again.

Joe always wants to wing bing shots at the head of his opponent. That's limiting.

 

I'm a fan of Joe's ,,but I thought he lost the fight, 116-112 was about right or 115-113 which is what I had it .Vaslov controlled the action. I thought that Vaslov's size and strength played a big part aside from his boxing ability. After Smith nailed him early with a big right hand Vaslov wobbled a little put wasn't seriously hurt, I knew then Joe was in for a rough night.

 

I'm not going to say that Joe Smith Jr didn't fight a brave fight. I'm not going to say he didn't have his moments. I'm just saying I clearly think he did not do enough to win this fight. I acknowledge that Joe had to look after his cut and his eye was swelling, but if he had committed to working Vlasov's body more in Rd 8 instead of winging those shots - I think he could have stopped him.

The Joe Smith Jr from last night is still the same fighter that lost that wide-ass decision to Bivol. I have to believe that what we saw from him is the "finished article" - i.e. no further development is likely.

If that's the way he's going to fight Beterbiev (as old as Artur is getting) then the best possible training he can do is go back to his construction site next week and ask his co-workers to drop cinderblocks on his head from ever-increasing heights. This is a good simulation of what boxing Artur Beterbiev is like as the rounds progress.

 

I had the Russian by 2 points and when I saw the Russian boxing and moving I thought Joe is going to have to break him down, this won't be easy. I was shocked though by his ability to take Joe's best shots early. I think his size and strength surprised Joe some.

 

Vlasov was really good at controlling the distance (Joe smothered his work some) or having Joe on his back foot. This reduced the power of Joe's shots even when they landed clean.

 

A fair and objective analysis.

 

Excellent point on Joe looking just like he did against Bivol, also I think you're right Joe is a finished product. Now he can gain experience from this as this guy was much better than I thought. Considering Beterbiev's last fight , I think Vlasov would have given him all he wanted too.

 

Vlasov won the fight. He controlled the pace, distance and dictated to Joe how the fight went. He was the better fighter.

 

I had it 115-113 Vlasov, maybe it could be a draw but there was no way I could see Joe winning the decision in this fight. I wouldn’t mind seeing a rematch.

 

I haven’t seen the fight. A friend who did said he felt Joe won the 2, 7, 11,12 clearly and he felt he would of been awarded a knock down but that at best he deserved a draw. I’ll try to find the bout and draw my own conclusions.
Russian and European fighters are often getting shafted against their western counterparts.

 

He should of had the KD round but the ref was lousy as bird crap

 

I had Vlasov winning a close but clear decision. Would he have been KO'd in the 11th? Perhaps, but we will never know.

I would pick Joe to win a rematch, and was rooting for Joe in this fight. But scored it for Vlasov.

 

He should have had a point deduction for a very intentional foul.

No excuse for punching a bloke in the back of the head like that

 

What came first the chicken or the egg? To me that was a KD but to your point Joe had been warned about the rabbit punches