Yes it could be argued it was a draw or even a narrow win for the Russian national but it was hard fought fight either way. Smith had to suck it up and dig down on the mouth piece to win this one as going into the championship rounds he looked down from my non scoring perspective.Congrats to Smith! Hard earned decision. It was close. I believe the knock down in round 11 was legit over Valsov. The ref did not. Smith is at times frustrating to watch. His corner implored him to attack the body, yet Smith did not. Instead going the the head shot. Smith has to learn that the body shots kill the fight in the opponent over a fight. Smith has to learn this ASAP. Vaslov, wow, he looked like a light weight in there. Very elusive and punches in bunches. But the harder shots by Smith wore him down. Smith has to learn body shots and improve his jab. He was at times being walked down by a smaller opponent. He has to learn to leverage body shots on the inside.
Agreed on the Lipinets analysis.Yes it could be argued it was a draw or even a narrow win for the Russian national but it was hard fought fight either way. Smith had to suck it up and dig down on the mouth piece to win this one as going into the championship rounds he looked down from my non scoring perspective.
PS, a few minutes after I saw Lipinets get sacrificed to Ennis and this was predictable as Lipinets seemed like he was fighting a guy a few divisions larger than him again. Unlike last time against the more limited Black Nova Scotian he was up against an elite prospect and was violently stopped.
Lipinets needs to move down or retire as he is spotting too much size to large welterweights.
Yes Smith can generate a bigger purse for the proposed unification fight with Bertebiev which off of the fight last night looks like a mismatch.I like Joe Smith, but I scored the fight 116-112 for Vlasov.
Smith should have been deducted a point for the rabbit punch in the 11th round. Andre Ward's scorecard of 3 rounds each after 6 was ridiculous. He's as dodgy as a commentator as he was as a boxer. And the punch stats they were talking about were wrong - Vlasov was landing far more, although Smith landed a few harder punches.
But we've seen it many times before, boxing is a corrupt sport. I hate seeing boxers from other countries get screwed on the scorecards by the promoter's officials.
Lippe-Morrison looked mediocre, to tell the truth he's not going to be a heavyweight contender.
On the positive side, Conto looked great. He's much more talented than Lippe-Morrison.