Cornelius Bundrage vs. Ishe Smith on February 23rd in Detroit, Michigan

By Boxing News - 12/26/2012 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: 39-year-old IBF light middleweight champion Cornelius Bundrage (32-4, 19 KO’s) will be making his third title defense of his International Boxing Federation 154 pound title against 34-year-old, 2nd tier fighter Ishe Smith (24-5, 11 KO’s) on February 23rd at the Jose Louis Arena in Detroit Michigan.

This will be the co-main even on the card. The main event fight is IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander defending his title against Kell Brook from England.

Bundrage is still incredibly fighting on a really level despite his advanced age. In his last fight, he bludgeoned Cory Spinks into submission in 7 rounds. This was the second time that Bundrage had stopped Spinks. Bundrage also has recent wins over Sechew Powell, and a nice victory over Zaurbek Baysangurov.

Smith is a good fighter and he’s won his last three fights in beating Alexander Pacheco Quiroz, Ayi Bruce and Irving Garcia. Before that, Smith had suffered to disappointing defeats against Fernando Guerrero and Daniel Jacobs. The loss to Jacobs had to be disappointing because it was a close fight and Smith had Jacobs hurt at point in the fight. However, the judges gave Jacobs the win by a set of wide scores that didn’t reflect what had actually occurred in the ring that night.

Smith has some good wins on his resume over Chris Gray and Pawel Wolak. However, he seems to have problems every now and then when facing good opposition, as he was beaten by Sechew Powel and Joel Julio in 2007 and 2008.

Smith is more of a defensive specialist than an offensive oriented fighter. He has a good chin and has never been stopped before in his career, and that really helps. Bundrage may not be able to knock this guy out, but he is good enough to outpoint him. Smith will have problems winning rounds due to Bundrage’s much harder shots, which will likely impress the judges a lot more than Smith’s jabbing.



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