NEW YORK – Joe Smith Jr. would love the chance to pick up where Andre Ward left off earlier this month.
If Smith defeats fellow light heavyweight contender Sullivan Barrera on July 15, the hard-hitting Long Island native hopes that victory leads to a fight against Sergey Kovalev. The former light heavyweight champion, who lost to Ward by eighth-round technical knockout in their rematch June 17 in Las Vegas, is expected to return to the ring sometime in November.
HBO, which will televise the Smith-Barrera bout as part of a “Boxing After Dark” tripleheader, also will broadcast Kovalev’s November bout.
“I’ll be willing to take that fight,” Smith told BS.com during an open workout Tuesday in Manhattan. “That would be a great opportunity.”
The possibility of facing Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) intrigues DeGuardia, especially if they could bring the fight to New York, where Smith works as a union laborer when he isn’t training for fights.
“It fits beautifully,” DeGuardia said. “Could you imagine a Smith-Kovalev fight at The Garden? It’d be on HBO, and with the kind of crowd we’d get, it’d be huge. So I would look forward to that. Now they might still say it’s Kovalev versus Smith, not Smith versus Kovalev, but whatever it is, it’s OK.
In my opinion, Kovalev fighting Smith Jr. in November was always going to be a very likely fight to be made, assuming Joe can successfully defeat Sullivan Barrera. I even predicted it several months ago... and I guess others did too.
He's a big underdog against Barrera from what I've been seeing amongst people in the forums. He should focus on that fight first because there is a significant chance that he loses.
Ossyrules wrote:It's nice to have targets but making them public isn't smart imo
Amir Khan was a classic, talked about Mayweather but lost important fights prior. Don't over look the task in hand. Barrera is a tough fight for him
BIG difference between Smith and Khan... Smith wants to fight dangerous punchers... Khan wants to avoid dangerous punchers.
Khan never wanted to fight any feared punchers and still doesn't... He won't fight Spence, Thurman, Brook, Porter, or Crawford... All he talked about was Mayweather and Pacquiao all day -- and they never wanted to fight the above either -- but they were in a special position where they could pick-n-choose
Ossyrules wrote:It's nice to have targets but making them public isn't smart imo
Amir Khan was a classic, talked about Mayweather but lost important fights prior. Don't over look the task in hand. Barrera is a tough fight for him
BIG difference between Smith and Khan... Smith wants to fight dangerous punchers... Khan wants to avoid dangerous punchers.
Khan never wanted to fight any feared punchers and still doesn't... He won't fight Spence, Thurman, Brook, Porter, or Crawford... All he talked about was Mayweather and Pacquiao all day -- and they never wanted to fight the above either -- but they were in a special position where they could pick-n-choose
You're right. But that's not the point I'm making.
The point is to beat the guy you have lined up instead of looking at the fight after
Ossyrules wrote:It's nice to have targets but making them public isn't smart imo
Amir Khan was a classic, talked about Mayweather but lost important fights prior. Don't over look the task in hand. Barrera is a tough fight for him
BIG difference between Smith and Khan... Smith wants to fight dangerous punchers... Khan wants to avoid dangerous punchers.
Great point about Smith. Personally I think a good case could be made for Smith-Kovalev even if Smith loses as expected to Barrera (as long as he doesnt get blown out).
Smith-Kovalev could be billed as a compelling matchup between the fearsome puncher who COULDN'T knockout Bernard Hopkins against the ONLY guy who ever DID knockout B-Hop!!
Thing with Kovalev right now would be seeing where his head and attitude are at.
I don't know if a Ward 3 fight is appealing to people or Sergey goes an alternative route to be honest it's up in the air.
On a guess I would tell him to take a good look at himself and how boxing works but get back to that level headedness and refocus, he's a good fighter.
It's possible if he gets cynical miserable and falls onto the dark side that he could drift away, I hope he doesn't all is still to play for.
In some respects it could be seen as Ward 1-1 Kovalev.
Evander wrote:Thing with Kovalev right now would be seeing where his head and attitude are at.
I don't know if a Ward 3 fight is appealing to people or Sergey goes an alternative route to be honest it's up in the air.
On a guess I would tell him to take a good look at himself and how boxing works but get back to that level headedness and refocus, he's a good fighter.
It's possible if he gets cynical miserable and falls onto the dark side that he could drift away, I hope he doesn't all is still to play for.
In some respects it could be seen as Ward 1-1 Kovalev.
Dont know if you read the thread on today's Current Scene but Ward-Kovalev 2 totally TANKED at the box office and on PPV. I seriously doubt any promoter will touch a money-loser like #3 would most probably be.
I think this is the Irish bomber trickiest test so far. If he doesn't KO Barrera see him losing big on points. Hope I'm wrong and he smashes fuk out him tho
Evander wrote:Thing with Kovalev right now would be seeing where his head and attitude are at.
I don't know if a Ward 3 fight is appealing to people or Sergey goes an alternative route to be honest it's up in the air.
On a guess I would tell him to take a good look at himself and how boxing works but get back to that level headedness and refocus, he's a good fighter.
It's possible if he gets cynical miserable and falls onto the dark side that he could drift away, I hope he doesn't all is still to play for.
In some respects it could be seen as Ward 1-1 Kovalev.
Dont know if you read the thread on today's Current Scene but Ward-Kovalev 2 totally TANKED at the box office and on PPV. I seriously doubt any promoter will touch a money-loser like #3 would most probably be.
Evander wrote:Thing with Kovalev right now would be seeing where his head and attitude are at.
I don't know if a Ward 3 fight is appealing to people or Sergey goes an alternative route to be honest it's up in the air.
On a guess I would tell him to take a good look at himself and how boxing works but get back to that level headedness and refocus, he's a good fighter.
It's possible if he gets cynical miserable and falls onto the dark side that he could drift away, I hope he doesn't all is still to play for.
In some respects it could be seen as Ward 1-1 Kovalev.
Dont know if you read the thread on today's Current Scene but Ward-Kovalev 2 totally TANKED at the box office and on PPV. I seriously doubt any promoter will touch a money-loser like #3 would most probably be.
