First off , I'm a Joe Smith fan and he didn't arguably lose to Vlasov ,,he did lose to Vlasov . I think I had it 115-113 Vlasov and I think I was biased toward Joe. Joe has to have a guy in front of him who will be there for him. A fighter with footwork and punching angles will give him a fit. That said I like Joe , the way he comes to fight . Against Gvozdyk? I'd make Joe a 3-1 underdog
That's the fight that makes me think Joe Smith has a chance against Beterbiev as Joe hits really hard. I think Beterbiev delivers his power a little better than Joe but in a head to head match with neither man looking for the other this could be a thrilling war.
Puncher avoidance is a thing and LHW has been Puncher Central for many years and almost all the top LHWs have been dropped or stopped. Bivol and Smith are the only ones in recent times who haven't Artur doesn't avoid punchers Gvozdyk is a very hard puncher Marcus Browne can crack Hot Rod had as many first round finishes (13 ) as Artur had fights when they fought each other Tavoris Cloud was a legit banger. Campillo said that he was the hardest puncher he'd fought, albeit this was before he fought Beterbiev and he amended that after doing so. Prieto hurt Eleider Alvarez with single shots more than Smith did. Granted Smith took Alvarez out with a vicious right hand but that was an Alvarez who'd taken a real beating and lots of seriously heavy blows prior to the finish This content is protected And obviously Beterbiev fought a ton of punchers during his 300 odd amateur bouts, including up at HW when he was giving away at least 14lbs or so How many punchers have the P4P top 10 Crawford and Spence fought in 39 fights and 27 respectively? Especially their own size? Think about it
What do WWs have to do with this? I'm lost by what you're getting at. Two of the biggest punchers in the LHW over the past 10 years didn't fight each other (Kovalev and Stevenson).
Both are ranked in the P4P top 10 and neither have fought many legit punchers despite having a lot more fights than Beterbiev. The one time Crawford did fight one his own size he got hurt and dropped. The risk of that happening or getting KTFO obviously increases when you fight punchers.