Joe Smith knocked out in the ninth round Eleider Alvarez Saturday night in Las Vegas in a fight full of action and honor.
It was a tug-of-war between two light heavyweight fighters who are very strong and resistant, but who are also fighters who don’t save anything. That was the fight they promised and that was the fight they delivered.
The Colombian bled from the nose very early in the fight, but it did not take a single gram of courage from his boxing. He went to the front, sought to straighten out a fight in which he lost practically every round, and sought to fight to the end.
By the ninth episode both fighters looked exhausted. In each combination they threw everything they had left.
Yoooo Joe Smith Jr. came to Vegas with some bad intentions ????#AlvarezSmith main event LIVE NOW on ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/qPdHKTlzPe
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) August 23, 2020
Smith had managed to shake Alvarez a couple of times earlier in the fight, with mostly isolated punches. But the Colombian had resisted those attacks, which were gradually making a dent in Eleider Alvarez.
The denouement came in the ninth episode. And it was precisely with one of those apparently isolated blows of Joe Smith. A long right straight entered the chin of Alvarez shaking his head. The Colombian tried to stay standing, but now a left of Smith He caught up with him pushing him out of the ring.
Alvarez He was completely out of the ring, and in an attitude of resignation he let the count advance. He tried to get up late, on the count of eight, but he could no longer enter the ring in time.
At that time the effective knockout was decreed for Joe Smith. The American won his most important victory since the knockout of Bernard Hopkins in 2016. After that, he lost with Sullivan Barrera and then with Dmitry Bivol in pursuit of the light heavyweight world title of the WITH. Victory against Eleider Alvarez could put back to Joe Smith in the orbit of a titular opportunity.
All. Of. The. Replays.
Joe Smith Jr. was just a monster tonight.#AlvarezSmith pic.twitter.com/Oo1U4YNv2T
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) August 23, 2020
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