Artur Beterbiev 175 vs. Joe Smith Jr. 174.6 – Weigh-in results

By Boxing News - 06/17/2022 - Comments

By Adam Baskin: Artur Beterbiev and Joe Smith Jr. both made weight on Friday at their weigh-in for Saturday night’s headliner in a Top Rank promoted event at Madison Square Garden in New York.

An un-smiling IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Beterbiev (17-0, 17 KOs) weighed in at 175 lbs and looked in tip-top shape as always. The nervous-looking WBO champion Smith (28-3, 22 KOs) weighed in at 174.6 lbs.

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Full undercard weights

  • Robeisy Ramirez 125.8 lbs vs. Abraham Nova 125.4 lbs
  • Bruce Carrington 127.4 lbs vs. Adrian Leyva 127.4 lbs
  • Jahi Tucker 147.8 lbs vs. D’Andre Smith 147.6 lbs
  • Floyd Diaz 121.6 lbs vs. Daniil Platonovschi 122 lbs
  • Troy Isley 158.6 lbs vs. Donte Stubbs 161.6 lbs
  • Wendy Toussaint 152.2 lbs vs. Asinia Byfield 152.8 lbs
  • Jahyae Brown 153.2 lbs vs. Keane McMahon 152.6 lbs

In the co-feature weighs, talented two-time Olympic gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez (9-1, 5 Kos) weighed in at 125.8 lbs, and his opponent Abraham Nova (21-0, 15 KOs) weighed in at 125.4 lbs for their 10-round fight.

“Robeisy Ramirez, a decorated [two-time Olympic] gold medalist was upset earlier in his career [by Adan Gonzalez in first fight of pro career],” said Max Kellerman to ESPN. “He’s got his career back on track. Why is that so difficult so early in your career?”

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“The problem is he had over 400 amateur fights, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and it’s hard to break those old habits. That amateur style of point-fighting” said Tim Bradley about what went wrong for the talented Cuban Robeisy Ramirez in his loss to the unheralded Adan Gonzalez in 2019.

“Robeisy Ramirez, yes, he was a great mover, aggressive and was throwing tons of punches coming forward, but he wasn’t really sitting down on his shots. He made a ton of mistakes as an amateur.

From transition to the pros, you need to be more solid with your attacks, you need to hit. It’s the hurt business, that’s what it’s all about. I think he’s transformed his style to be a more hurtful counter-puncher type of style that is knocking guys out. I saw his last fight, and he looked so dang good,” said Bradley about Robeisy.

“He beat Shakur Stevenson, and then he loses his first professional fight. ‘Oh my God, this guy is going to be the greatest,’ and loses his professional fight, but since then, he’s looked better and better and better.

“Abraham Nova, what do you think of him? He’s undefeated and can obviously handle himself,” said Kellerman. “He’s not a world-beater.”

“I think tomorrow night he’s going to be able to display what level he’s really on,” said Bradley about Nova. “He did have a pretty good amateur career, but nothing on the level of a Robeisy Ramirez.

“He’s straight up and down. He’s in and he’s out and has a longer reach. He’s bigger and coming down from 130 lbs to 126. We’ll see if that helps him in this fight.

We’re going to find out if he has the skills to beat a guy like Robeisy Ramirez,” said Bradley.