Sullivan Barrera vs. Joe Smith Jr. All But Done for July 15 on HBO

[Ruthless-RKO]

BS.com has learned that light heavyweight contenders Sullivan Barrera and Joe Smith Jr. have agreed to terms for an intriguing fight July 15 in Inglewood, California.

Contracts haven’t been finalized, but Barrera and Smith are expected to open an HBO tripleheader from The Forum that night. Their 10-round, 175-pound fight will be part of a telecast that is expected to include a WBC-mandated super featherweight title bout between Mexico’s Miguel Berchelt (31-1, 28 KOs), the defending champion, and Japan’s Takashi Miura (31-3-2, 24 KOs), the WBC’s No. 1 contender.

Long Island’s Smith (23-1, 19 KOs) will return to the site of the biggest victory of his seven-year pro career. The union laborer from Mastic, New York, emphatically ended the legendary Bernard Hopkins’ career when he knocked the former middleweight and light heavyweight champion clear out of the ring December 17 in a main event HBO televised from The Forum.

http://www.BS.com/sullivan-bar ... bo--116523

[caldo2025]

Who could complain about this card? I love it. I'm dying to see Berchelt fight again and Miura refuses to be in a bad fight. Miura could actually die in this fight though because Berchelt is nothing nice in there.

Also, I love this fight for Joe Smith Jr and I love how his handlers are bringing him along slowly with this fight. He has an exciting fan friendly style and he's got a great back story. Fighting a solid pro like Barrera will give us a good measuring stick as to what we should expect from this guy going forward. Considering, he's been a part time fighter/roofer, it will be interesting to see how good he could get by putting the time in as a full time professional boxer. I love this night of boxing so far.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Cuban boxers are clever. I see Barrera winning a wide decision. Unless Smith can somehow catch him..

[gilgamesh]

I like Barrera in this fight, but it's an interesting matchup.

[ElJefe]

This might be a British mentality but why aren't they trying to build Smith's fan base with some big fights in New York? Seems a bit strange that his last fight and now this one will be over on the West Coast. Stuff like that might not matter to American boxing fans but I much prefer the atmosphere when guys fight in front of their passionate hometown fans.

[Kalan]

Who could complain about this card? I love it. I'm dying to see Berchelt fight again and Miura refuses to be in a bad fight. Miura could actually die in this fight though because Berchelt is nothing nice in there.

Also, I love this fight for Joe Smith Jr and I love how his handlers are bringing him along slowly with this fight. He has an exciting fan friendly style and he's got a great back story. Fighting a solid pro like Barrera will give us a good measuring stick as to what we should expect from this guy going forward. Considering, he's been a part time fighter/roofer, it will be interesting to see how good he could get by putting the time in as a full time professional boxer. I love this night of boxing so far.

I hate this fight for Smith. It's way too risky right now. He's still a part time boxer who owns multi-million dollar potential -- so this fight is slightly nuts.

I love this fight for Barrera. All Barrera has done is box and he's been in with some of the best. He looked a little green fighting Ward, but he caught Ward with some good punches, didn't get punished a great deal, and the fight moved him to another level of awareness. In the Shabranskyy fight Barrera showed massive improvements. In the most talented division in Boxing you need great skills at the top. Not good skills. Not damned good skills. Great skills. This is not a division where you have Willie Pastrano, Jose Torres, and Dick Tiger at the top and you can walk into a title. It's more like Bob Foster, Billy Conn, and Michael Spinks blocking your path. You need to get ready.

If Barrera were a light hitter like Ward I wouldn't hesitate putting Smith in there. That's a massive learning experience because Ward shows you a million tricks. It's good money too so you need to consider that as well. All Barrera is likely to do is beat the living crap out of you. I'm only saying this because Smith is so talented and has so much potential. If he had 5 or 6 intermediary fights with guys like Marcus Browne, Robert Stieglitz, Isaac Chilemba, and Nathan Cleverly he would win all those fights and round out his skills. He would be more than ready for guys like this.

[gilgamesh]

This might be a British mentality but why aren't they trying to build Smith's fan base with some big fights in New York? Seems a bit strange that his last fight and now this one will be over on the West Coast. Stuff like that might not matter to American boxing fans but I much prefer the atmosphere when guys fight in front of their passionate hometown fans.

I don't know that Smith would have a passionate hometown following even in his neck of the woods, but I'm sure he'd have more fans there than he does on the West Coast.

The crowd didn't seem too thrilled about it when he beat Hopkins.

[Tanzio]

Great fight. People just keep selling Smith short.

[gilgamesh]

Great fight. People just keep selling Smith short.

I picked him to beat Old Man Hopkins, but I won't be picking him to win this one. That being said, I wouldn't consider him a big underdog here or anything.

[Freedom2013]

Competitive matchup.

Smith has a better chance (about 40%) of beating Barrera than of defeating Gvozdyk (about 20%).

[Horse]

Cuban boxers are clever.

Most of them are idiots.

[gilgamesh]

Competitive matchup.

Smith has a better chance (about 40%) of beating Barrera than of defeating Gvozdyk (about 20%).

I'd have given him less than that to beat Gvozdyk

[gilgamesh]

Cuban boxers are clever.

Most of them are idiots.

They're not good at managing their careers that's for sure. I've seen a lot of Cuban boxers overestimate their worth and price themselves out of many a fight.

[Kalan]

That's a broad brush... Barrera is (or his people are) doing an excellent job of managing his career.

[caldo2025]

Who could complain about this card? I love it. I'm dying to see Berchelt fight again and Miura refuses to be in a bad fight. Miura could actually die in this fight though because Berchelt is nothing nice in there.

Also, I love this fight for Joe Smith Jr and I love how his handlers are bringing him along slowly with this fight. He has an exciting fan friendly style and he's got a great back story. Fighting a solid pro like Barrera will give us a good measuring stick as to what we should expect from this guy going forward. Considering, he's been a part time fighter/roofer, it will be interesting to see how good he could get by putting the time in as a full time professional boxer. I love this night of boxing so far.

I hate this fight for Smith. It's way too risky right now. He's still a part time boxer who owns multi-million dollar potential -- so this fight is slightly nuts.

I love this fight for Barrera. All Barrera has done is box and he's been in with some of the best. He looked a little green fighting Ward, but he caught Ward with some good punches, didn't get punished a great deal, and the fight moved him to another level of awareness. In the Shabranskyy fight Barrera showed massive improvements. In the most talented division in Boxing you need great skills at the top. Not good skills. Not damned good skills. Great skills. This is not a division where you have Willie Pastrano, Jose Torres, and Dick Tiger at the top and you can walk into a title. It's more like Bob Foster, Billy Conn, and Michael Spinks blocking your path. You need to get ready.

If Barrera were a light hitter like Ward I wouldn't hesitate putting Smith in there. That's a massive learning experience because Ward shows you a million tricks. It's good money too so you need to consider that as well. All Barrera is likely to do is beat the living crap out of you. I'm only saying this because Smith is so talented and has so much potential. If he had 5 or 6 intermediary fights with guys like Marcus Browne, Robert Stieglitz, Isaac Chilemba, and Nathan Cleverly he would win all those fights and round out his skills. He would be more than ready for guys like this.

You can't call Smith a multi-million dollar prospect yet with what you've seen from him so far. Impossible. Smith was cherry picked by a faded Fonfara and 70 year old Hopkins and he dispatched both impressively. But let's face it, both of those dogs had fleas. Matchmakers are still unsure at what Smith has and this is a perfect fight to answer all of the questions that need to be answered. A sound performance by Smith over Barrerra will not only legitimize Smith as a valid contender but it will also put more stock into the victories he had over Fonfara and Hopkins. Maybe people won't say that Fonfara and Hopkins were not ready for those fights and instead will say they just picked the wrong SOB for a cupcake fight.

I also think that you are building up Barrera too much. I've never been impressed with him in any fight.

[Kalan]

He's improved a lot. I was definitely impressed with the Shabranskyy fight. He's getting there.

[Lackeos]

I really can't grasp why some people on here are overrating Barrera so much and underrating Smith so much. Smith KO 1'ed Fonfara, who is vastly superior to Barrera. Barrera has done nothing except beat the currently #28 LHW. It's almost as though some posters on here overrate literally every Cuban and Ukrainian. Shabranskyy himself has done literally nothing. Barrera's entire resume is thin air. It's like... forget anything that even remotely resembles a conventionally proper analysis of a resume, Barrera is a Cuban who beat a Ukrainian who beat a Cuban! That makes him the best boxer ever! And let's not forget, these same people give Smith no chance against Gvozdyk either, because he's a Ukrainian who beat a Cuban! I wouldn't be surprised if they also have Smith as an underdog to Vladyslav Nykytenko and Abraham Palacios.

[Badhusker]

Who could complain about this card? I love it. I'm dying to see Berchelt fight again and Miura refuses to be in a bad fight. Miura could actually die in this fight though because Berchelt is nothing nice in there.

Also, I love this fight for Joe Smith Jr and I love how his handlers are bringing him along slowly with this fight. He has an exciting fan friendly style and he's got a great back story. Fighting a solid pro like Barrera will give us a good measuring stick as to what we should expect from this guy going forward. Considering, he's been a part time fighter/roofer, it will be interesting to see how good he could get by putting the time in as a full time professional boxer. I love this night of boxing so far.

I hate this fight for Smith. It's way too risky right now. He's still a part time boxer who owns multi-million dollar potential -- so this fight is slightly nuts.

I love this fight for Barrera. All Barrera has done is box and he's been in with some of the best. He looked a little green fighting Ward, but he caught Ward with some good punches, didn't get punished a great deal, and the fight moved him to another level of awareness. In the Shabranskyy fight Barrera showed massive improvements. In the most talented division in Boxing you need great skills at the top. Not good skills. Not damned good skills. Great skills. This is not a division where you have Willie Pastrano, Jose Torres, and Dick Tiger at the top and you can walk into a title. It's more like Bob Foster, Billy Conn, and Michael Spinks blocking your path. You need to get ready.

If Barrera were a light hitter like Ward I wouldn't hesitate putting Smith in there. That's a massive learning experience because Ward shows you a million tricks. It's good money too so you need to consider that as well. All Barrera is likely to do is beat the living crap out of you. I'm only saying this because Smith is so talented and has so much potential. If he had 5 or 6 intermediary fights with guys like Marcus Browne, Robert Stieglitz, Isaac Chilemba, and Nathan Cleverly he would win all those fights and round out his skills. He would be more than ready for guys like this.

As usual, you have no idea what you are talking about. Smith has about 5 fights more than Barerra. Both are ready. Ward basically shut out Barerra if I remember right. Smith KO'd Fonfara and BHop.

[Kalan]

As usual??? You're the guy who gets them wrong. I said there was no way in Hell Chavez beats Canelo... I had Joshua knocking out Klitschko... I said Kovalev-Ward would be a 12 round decision robbery and Kovalev would be robbed.. When they named the officials I saw it coming. Then you had Gilgamesh challenging me with 7 or 8 fights he picked. I got them all right and he didn't.

[armageto]

This might be a British mentality but why aren't they trying to build Smith's fan base with some big fights in New York? Seems a bit strange that his last fight and now this one will be over on the West Coast. Stuff like that might not matter to American boxing fans but I much prefer the atmosphere when guys fight in front of their passionate hometown fans.

Joe has fought the majority of his career fights in N.Y. and a few in the surrounding area. He has a good fanbase in N.Y. and did well selling fights in venues like The Paramount and Aviator. I guess they are trying to expand his fan base out of his region. I expect him to get some big fights in N.Y. soon like Monaghan and Browne.

[Kalan]

I'd go for Browne rather than Barrera... He had a much better chance to clean Browne up an knock him out.

[diddy]

50-50 fight. 2 gatekeepers. No idea who wins.

[KiwiRider]

50-50 fight. 2 gatekeepers. No idea who wins.

2 gatekeepers?
Come on

[KiwiRider]

Is it only me excited about this fight?
If Joe Jr blasts out Barrera like he did with Fonfara, surely that will elevate him to a top 5 light heavy in even the most jaded fans book? Probably ahead of Chickenson, in my mind at least.
The result of the Chickenson Vs Fonfara will also have a bearing on how we view Joe Jr. I doubt it will be as brief

Anyone got any updates on the Smith Barrera fight?

I'm fast becoming a fanboy, I'll try and keep a lid on it

[Tanzio]

Is it only me excited about this fight?
If Joe Jr blasts out Barrera like he did with Fonfara, surely that will elevate him to a top 5 light heavy in even the most jaded fans book? Probably ahead of Chickenson, in my mind at least.
The result of the Chickenson Vs Fonfara will also have a bearing on how we view Joe Jr. I doubt it will be as brief

Anyone got any updates on the Smith Barrera fight?

I'm fast becoming a fanboy, I'll try and keep a lid on it

I like them both and I think they are both sold short by most. Good, tough, competitive pros who have over achieved and who can compete with most.