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Artur Beterbiev understandably receives a lot of attention for his power.
The unbeaten IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion has knocked out every opponent in 17 professional fights. The Russian-born, Montreal-based Beterbiev also is the only world champion in boxing with a 100-percent knockout ratio and tends to finish fighters once he hurts them.
According to Joe Smith Jr.’s longtime promoter, however, Beterbiev won’t be the most dangerous puncher in the ring Saturday night at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater in New York.
“I believe that Joe has better one-punch knockout power than Beterbiev,” Joe DeGuardia told BoxingScene.com. “I think Beterbiev can punch. He has beautiful, nice, straight, short punches, and has wonderful combinations and tremendous pinpoint accuracy in his punching. But I think that Joe, in terms of pure punching power, is a better puncher.”
Smith (28-3, 22 KOs) has knocked out 71 percent of his opponents since he made his pro debut in October 2009. His most memorable stoppages came against Andrzej Fonfara, Bernard Hopkins and Eleider Alvarez.
The then-unknown Smith’s first-round stoppage of Fonfara, who opened as a 24-1 favorite, legitimized Smith in June 2016. He knocked Hopkins out of the ring and into retirement in the eighth round of his subsequent bout in December 2016.
Three-and-half-years later, Smith became the first fighter to knock out former WBO light heavyweight champ Eleider Alvarez. Smith won that WBO elimination match by ninth-round TKO in August 2020.
The Mastic, New York native has since won the WBO 175-pound championship, but Beterbiev is a heavy favorite, as much as 11-1 according to FanDuel’s sportsbook.
“Beterbiev does have vulnerabilities,” DeGuardia said, “and I think those vulnerabilities match up pretty well for Joe because if Beterbiev gets hit, we know Joe can punch. And I think we can exploit that. And there are other things that I have seen that Beterbiev does. Every fighter has vulnerabilities and weaknesses. But look, Beterbiev’s a great fighter. He’s got a lot of positive attributes, but I still think that we’re gonna be able to take advantage of those things that favor Joe and capitalize on certain mistakes Beterbiev does make.”
Beterbiev, 37, and Smith, 32, will headline an ESPN telecast set to start at 10 p.m. ET. Featherweight contenders Abraham Nova (21-0, 15 KOs), of Albany, New York, and Robeisy Ramirez (9-1, 5 KOs), a two-time Olympic gold medalist from Cienfuegos, Cuba, are scheduled to meet in the 10-round opener of ESPN’s broadcast.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.