Joe Smith Jr looks like he will be turning down a direct route to a world title in favor of a different bout as he is reportedly close to announcing a July 15th HBO fight with Sullivan Barerra in Inglewood, California. The fight is not expected to be the main event of the card, but no word on what that main event might be yet.
For what it is worth, I think this is a better avenue for Joe Smith Jr and the light heavyweight division. Gvozdyk versus Smith Jr would be a tremendous fight, but I’d prefer both of them to stay in the title hunt a little longer. Adonis Stevenson is the current WBC title holder and he is clearly in no hurry to fight a top fighter having not done so for years now. In fact, he recently paid his mandatory challenger Eleider Alvarez to step aside so he can take an easier rematch with recent Joe Smith Jr first round knockout victim Andrzej Fonfara instead.
This means that the WBC is looking to line up a second mandated title challenger, presumably to wait in line behind Alvarez. Someone could easily look at this and speculate on whether or not the WBC may be anticipating being forced to eventually strip Stevenson. They will soon have a ready made vacant title belt fight between Alvarez and whoever they decide to name as the second mandatory. Time will tell.
Joe Smith Jr (23-1, 19 KOs) against Sullivan Barerra (19-1, 14 KOs) still is a really good fight. Smith burst on the scene in 2016 with the aforementioned first round KO of Fonfara in one of the bigger upsets in 2016. He cemented his spot as a top light heavyweight last December by finally being the man to retire the almost ageless Bernard Hopkins with an eighth round stoppage that sent the legend clear out of the ring. Barerra is best known for his wide loss to pound for pound elite Andre Ward last March, but he has rebounded with two stoppage wins including an impressive win over the previously unbeaten Ukranian prospect Vyacheslav Shabranskyy.
No main event has been named or really even speculated about for the targeted July 15th date yet, but I would note that Miguel Cotto has been rumored to return against Yoshihiro Kamegai around that time.
