Review by AllTheBestFights.com: 2017-07-15, fight not particularly exciting between Joe Smith Jr and Sullivan Barrera: it gets two stars.Joe Smith Jr entered this fight with a professional boxing record of 23-1-0 (19 KOs=83%) and he is ranked as the No.4 light heavyweight in the world. He suffered his only loss when he faced Eddie Caminero in 2010, since then he has collected 17 consecutive victories beating Fabiano Pena, Andrzej Fonfara (=Fonfara vs Smith) and Bernard Hopkins in 2016 (=Hopkins vs Smith).
His opponent, Sullivan Barrera, has an official record of 19-1-0 (14 knockouts) and he entered as the No.12 in the same weight class. He lost to #1 Andre Ward last year (=Ward vs Barrera) but then he has beat Vyacheslav Shabranskyy (=Shabranskyy vs Barrera) and Paul Parker (=Barrera vs Parker). Sullivan Barrera vs Joe Smith Jr is valid for the WBC International light heavyweight title; undercard of Miguel Berchelt vs Takashi Miura. Watch the video and rate this fight!
Date: 2017-07-15
Where: Forum, Inglewood, California, USA
Division: light heavyweight (175 lbs, 79.4 kg)
Title: WBC International light heavyweight title
Smith’s previous fight: Bernard Hopkins vs Joe Smith Jr
Barrera’s previous fight: Sullivan Barrera vs Paul Parker
Barrera’s next fight: Sullivan Barrera vs Felix Valera
Smith’s next fight: Joe Smith Jr vs Melvin Russell
Smith vs Barrera Fight Video:
(Free embeddable video hosted on Ok.ru and not uploaded by AllTheBestFights)
Official video
Official highlights
It was a better matchup on paper than what truly happened on Saturday night. It might reflect how done was Hopkins when Smith fought him and how the latter is since overrated. On the other hand, I feel Barrera is a real LHW top 10. I would love to see him fight Kovalev before the end of the year.