After scramble for new foe, Joe Smith will defend light heavyweight title vs. Geffrard
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Joe Smith Jr. will make the first defense of his WBO light heavyweight title against short-notice opponent Steve Geffrard on Jan. 15, promoters Top Rank and Star Boxing announced on Friday.
Smith was scheduled to defend against Callum Johnson (20-1, 14 KOs), 36, of England, in the main event of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card (ESPN/ESPN Deportes/ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET) at the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York, but Johnson was forced to withdraw on Thursday after testing positive for Covid-19.
That sent Smith’s camp into a frantic search for a new opponent to save the show and Geffrard quickly accepted the fight when several others turned down an offer, Star Boxing promoter Joe DeGuardia told Fight Freaks Unite.
“I either spoke to the manager, the promoter, an agent or the fighter himself and at least a dozen turned down the fight,” DeGuardia said. “I had three guys who said something like, ‘You want me to fight for the championship of the world on one week’s notice against a guy who can punch like Joe?’”
According to DeGuardia, there was no such issue for Geffrard (18-2, 12 KOs), 31, who was already scheduled to face Gonzalo Andreasen in an eight-round bout on Saturday night in his hometown of Delray Beach, Florida.
“He was supposed to fight Saturday night on a club show in Delray and now he’s fighting for the championship of the world a week later. It’s like a ‘Rocky’ story,” DeGuardia said. “He jumped on it and I’ve got to give him a lot of credit. He had a fight scheduled already but he recognized this is a real opportunity.
“I think Joe will wear him down, but it’s a fight. (Geffrard) has trained and sparred with guys like (former unified titlist Sergey) Kovalev and (reigning unified titleholder Artur) Beterbiev. He’s been in with top guys sparring. He’s got a fast jab and he’s a good skilled all-around fighter, and he’s younger than Callum Johnson.”
Geffrard, however, will be taking an enormous step up in competition in terms of an actual bout. He’s only had one fight scheduled for more than eight rounds and that was his most notable win, a seventh-round knockout in a scheduled 12-rounder for a regional belt against former world title challenger Dmitry Sukhotskiy in December 2016.
“This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Geffrard said. “It’s crazy how boxing works. One moment I’m thinking about boxing on a local show, then the phone rings for a chance to fight for the WBO world title on ESPN. Unreal!”
Geffrard has had just one fight since March 2018, and that was an eight-round decision win over journeyman Denis Grachev in March 2021. But Smith (27-3, 21 KOs), 32, of Mastic, New York, is pleased that Geffrard accepted the offer.
“I give Steve credit for taking this fight on short notice,” Smith said. “He is a tough guy, and I expect him to bring everything he has for this opportunity. I'm ready to fight regardless of who is in the ring with me. My goal is the same, which is to defend my world title and keep it on Long Island where it belongs.”
Smith he eked out a majority decision over Russia’s Maxim Vlasov in an action-packed battle on April 10 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to claim the 175-pound world title that Canelo Alvarez had vacated. Smith has not fought since because an October defense against then-mandatory challenger Umar Salamov was canceled because Smith came down with Covide-19.
In the co-feature, featherweight up-and-comer Abraham Nova (20-0, 14 KOs), 27, of Albany, New York, who will have his second fight since missing more than a year due to a torn Achilles tendon, will face the Dominican Republic’s William Encarnacion (19-1, 15 KOs), who has been out of action since December 2020.
Nova was due to face Jose Enrique Vivas (21-1, 11 KOs), 27, of Mexico, but he withdrew because of an unspecified injury.
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Does Joe get some work in or blast him out in the 2nd? woeful mismatch
So it took 13 tries before Joe DeGuardia found a boxer daft enough to take the fight.
Geffrard's lower-level resume and lack of activity recently suggests he's gonna get a shellacking off Smith - I just hope he isn't badly hurt.
With covid being around for so long now, and the omicron variant running riot in the UK & US, maybe the promoters should have predicted a covid withdrawal was fairly likely.
They could have covered any withdrawal in the main fight by putting another top level 175lb fight on the undercard - allowing one of the boxers to step up into the world title fight if necessary.