I do not see Smith Jr. quitting. No matter how much punishment he absorbs. His spirit cannot be broken. As far as intestinal fortitude goes Smith rates 10/10. Beterbiev will have to break his body because his spirit will not yield nor break. Looking at Beterbiev's last few opponents their spirit broke before their body did. Gvozdyk just kept taking a knee and pretty much quit or said I've had enough here. Deines was wobbled by a left hook and looked into the refs eyes and gave a I'm done here look. And Marcus Browne is the quintessential example of a glass heart. After some dirty tactics, he took some hard punches and then took a knee and quit. He simply chose to knee for 10 seconds and quit after talking a **** ton of trash. Not going to happen with Joe. Not a even a broken jaw (literally) could make him quit. I'm interested to see how Beterbiev does against a guy with an iron heart and will. Cannot wait for this fight!
I agree I don't think he will quit either. He's a very live dog in this fight. Should be a great one.
Hes never fought a savage like beterbiev, he hasnt quit but hes looked on the verge of being stopped.
This fight has fireworks written all over it, but it can only go one way which is Beterbiev winning. I can't see how else Smith can win other than a punchers chance. Beterbiev has everything over Smith including ring IQ. I don't see Smith quitting, but he'll most likely take too much punishment for his liking.
He has been and is willing to fight anyone and everyone. He's a genuinely nice guy and refreshingly humble. He was very respectful to B-Hop both before and after their fight despite the B-Hop's pre-fight disrespect and post-fight excuses. He's always quick to go over to console his opponent and pay respect to them after beating them. And the fact that he gutted it through to the final bell against Barrera after having his jaw badly broken at the end of round one or the start of round two is remarkable enough but, as I've mentioned on here a number of times before, to do so whilst knowing full well the 6-8 weeks of jaw wired shut hell again that awaited him again because he'd already been through it before is super impressive. 'This is the second time that Smith, 27, has broken his jaw. The last time, according to DeGuardia, was in 2010 during the only other fight that Smith has lost in his career. It happened against Eddie Caminero, and ended with a fourth-round TKO loss for Smith, the only time he's been stopped. That break, according to DeGuardia, was much worse than this one. "That was a real terrible break," DeGuardia said of the 2010 injury. "It broke on both sides, and it was literally hanging. It was a 6-to-8-hour operation and his mouth was wired shut for months." DeGuardia said that last week, on his last day of sparring before the fight, Smith hurt his jaw. "He went to the doctor and they took an X-ray and it didn't show a break," he said. "But it was bruised up and it hurt. During the fight when it happened, they pretty much knew it was the jaw when he was feeling pain. He was feeling pain throughout the whole fight really bad. He said he was trying to disguise it and hide it. I think once or twice the referee (Jack Reiss) went over because he noticed it." Iceman John Scully feels that Smith made a big mistake by expressing self-doubt admitting he didn't know if he was going to be able to make it through the Vlasov fight or not. But I think he might just have meant he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to pull out the win that night. Vlasov was a horrible style match up for him This content is protected This content is protected
Smith Jr will be as solid as a union picket line but Beterbiev is the perfect strikebreaker. I like both guys but I can't see any other outcome but pain for Joe.