By Jeff Aranow: Jerry Capobianco, the trainer for light heavyweight Joe Smith Jr. (22-1, 18 KOs), would like to see his fighter cash in on the success he had last Saturday night in destroying the highly ranked #2 WBC Andrzej Fonfara (28-4, 16 KOs) in a 1st round knockout at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois.
Smith Jr., 26, came into the fight with Fonfara a huge underdog, but he shocked everyone by knocking the Polish fighter down twice in the 1st round to get a fast knockout victory.
Capobianco wants to see Smith Jr. take on the 38-year-old WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (27-1, 22 KOs), as he likes Smith’s chances against the aging champion.
Getting a fight against Stevenson may prove to be difficult for Smith Jr., because the Canadian based champion tends to be matched very carefully. Based on how good Smith Jr. looked in obliterating Fonfara, he may have spoiled any chances he ever had of getting a fight against Stevenson.
In 2014, Stevenson had problems in beating Fonfara in winning a hard fought 12 round unanimous decision. Fonfara knocked Stevenson down in the 9th round. It’s doubtful that Stevenson will want to fight a guy that took care of Fonfara so quickly.
“To me, I think Joe is stronger, he’s faster and Stevenson is 38 years old,” Capobianco said to RingTV.com. “I’m sure he’s declining a little bit and Joe is getting a little stronger. Joe is getting a little more mature and (Stevenson) is getting older. He knows he’s stronger than Stevenson because Stevenson couldn’t do what Joe did.”
Stevenson has a fight scheduled next month on July 29 against #8 WBC Thomas Williams Jr. (20-1, 14 KOs) at the Centre Videotron, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. After that, Stevenson will likely need to fight his mandatory challenger because he hasn’t faced his mandatory for a while now.
Capobianco says Smith Jr. would need a couple of fights under his belt to get ready for a fight against IBF/WBA/WBO champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev.
“If it was against Kovalev, I would say we can have a couple of fights before Kovalev,” said Capobianco.
If they’re going to target Kovalev, then they should at least prove that Smith Jr. can beat someone like Artur Beterbiev. That would be a good test for Smith to see if his win over Fonfara was a fluke or not. Some boxing fans believe it was because Fonfara was controlling the 1st round until he got careless and left himself open for a right hand counter by Smith Jr. Beterbiev would be a very tough fight for Smith Jr., because he’s got great chin and he punches hard. Beterbiev isn’t a slow starter like Fonfara. Smith couldn’t count on Beterbiev coming out slow and leaving himself open the way Fonfara did.
Capobianco says they would be open to Smith Jr. facing Fonfara in a rematch if the fight takes place in New York rather than in Fonfara’s home city of Chicago. There wasn’t a rematch clause in the contract with Fonfara, so the fight doesn’t need to happen unless there’s mutual interest on both sides.