Stephen Smith destroys Daniel Eduardo Brizuela

By Boxing News - 05/29/2016 - Comments

smith85By Scott Gilfoid: #12 IBF, #15 WBC Stephen Smith (24-2, 14 KOs) destroyed an over-matched 2nd tier fighter in stopping him in the 5th round on Sunday night to win the vacant WBC Silver super featherweight title at the Goodison Park Stadium in Liverpool, England. The fight was stopped at 2:59 of the 5th round by referee Ian John Lewis.

Smith knocked Brizuela, 30, down twice with body shots in the 5th. The referee then halted the fight after the second knockdown. Smith got away with hitting Brizuela while he was down after the first knockdown with the referee disqualifying him or taking points off. I guess the referee didn’t see the punch, which seemed pretty blatant.

The size difference between Smith and Brizuela looked pretty significant to me. As soon as the two super featherweights stepped foot inside the ring, I knew which one would win just by looking at them. Smith looked to be at least 10 pounds heavier than Brizuela and he was able to use his superior size to walk through his shots and punish him.

Smith got away with a lot holding and hitting, as well shouldering Brizuela. I’m surprised the referee just let that go on without taking points off for fouling. I also saw one rabbit shot from Smith as well. It looked like one of those anything goes type of fights where the action was able to get primitive without the referee lifting a finger to take points off.

Smith, 30, was whipped just just last month by IBF super featherweight champion Jose Pedraza by a 12 round decision on April 16. The talk now is Smith could get another world title shot despite the fact that he only beat a 2nd tier fighter in Brizuela and not a top 15 world contender. I mean, I don’t think that’s hardly fair for all the top contenders in the super featherweight division that are waiting patiently, some of them for years, for a world title shot. You get a guy that’s beaten by IBF champion Pedraza, and then all he has to do is beat an over-matched non-contender in Brizuela to get another world title shot. What about the to ranked fighters like Nicholas Walters, Takashi Miura and Miguel Berchet? Why aren’t they getting title shots? Those guys didn’t just get beaten by a world champion.