Vlasov went on a 11-1 (10KOs) run when he moved up to CW and I thought he look great up there even though he'd come up from 168 and is a natural 175. His only loss at that weight was against Glowacki and he was unlucky in that one, suffering a haematoma from a butt/head clash and a bogus KD counted against him, and IIRC the ref was biased. He was suffering from breathing issues in the Ramirez fight because the fight was at altitude and the earlier career loss against Chilemba which he avenged in 2019 was razor-close and could've gone either way. So even though he's had more than his fair share of bad luck and been unlucky, as others have said, he's actually a really talented and slick fighter and stylistically he should cause the much improved Smith a lot of problems. This content is protected
I'm going to have to watch a few more of both their fights but I'll be honest I think from the little I've watched Vlasov looks like he has an awkward style for Joe Smith Jr and if he's went 48 fights without being stopped it's hard to predict that he will be in this fight. I'll have to watch a bit more of both but good fight this is.
