By Scott Gilfoid: #2 WBC, #4 IBF super featherweight contender Stephen Smith (22-1, 12 KOs) will be battling #4 WBA #6 IBF Devis Boschiero (37-3-1, 19 KOs) in an IBF final eliminator bout at the Olympia, in Liverpool, England. The winner of the Smith-Boschiero will be the IBF mandatory challenger to champion Jose Pedraza.
Smith, 30, is at the last chance saloon for this fight with the 34-year-old Boschiero. Smith has done zero since being stopped by Lee Selby four years ago in an 8th round knockout defeat in 2011.
I’m not sure what happened with Smith, but he pretty much got stuck in a four-year cycle of tune-up bouts and didn’t get off of it until his fight with Boschiero. But even with this match-up, Smith still isn’t facing the best contender in the International Boxing Federation’s top 15 contenders.
The best contender is Romain Jacob, who is getting passed over by the IBF for the Smith vs. Boschiero title eliminator. It doesn’t make any sense at all considering that Jacob twice beat Boschiero. So why in the heck is he fighting Smith in the eliminator bout instead of Jacob?
“It’s an important fight. He knows it’s now or never without me saying anything,” said trainer Joe Gallagher to skysports.com. “I feel sorry for him in a way when you look at Lee Selby getting the world title, Paul [Smith] having those three world title fights back to back, Callum’s rapid rise and Stephen has been a slow-burner.”
Well, Smith’s problems were totally preventable if his promoter had simply put him in with quality opposition after his loss to Selby instead of backing him off from fighting good fighters and having him fight poor guys for four straight years.
I can understand Smith having a confidence booster after his loss to Selby, but 10 confidence boosters? Come on, Smith threw away four years of his career with confidence boosters instead of getting back on the horse and taking on good opposition.
At least if Smith had done that he’d know by now whether he’s got the talent to mix it up with the best. But instead we only have that one fight where Smith fought Selby and got totally schooled in the process of getting knocked out in the 8th round.
Look at Smith’s last opponent Barrington Brown (6-13-3, 2 KOs). Is there any reason why the 30-year-old Smith is stilling fighting guy like that after seven years as a pro.
“He has to win. I wouldn’t say his careers on the line but he’s in a make-or-break fight so first and foremost it’s about the win. I think it’ll be hard. Boschiero is very good.” Gallagher said.
Well if Gallagher doesn’t want to admit that Smith’s career is on the line then I’ll say it. Smith’s career is definitely on the line here, because if he can’t even beat the 34-year-old Boschiero, then it’s pretty clear that he’s going nowhere. I mean, there are far better fighters in the division than Boschiero in my view, and if Smith can’t beat this guy then he’s going to need to be content with just being a contender and not a title challenger or champion.
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