Joe DeGuardia, promoter of the American ex-world light heavyweight champion (up to 79.4 kg) Joe Smith Jr. (28-4, 22 KOs), spoke about the defeat that his ward suffered from Artur Beterbiev (18-0, 18 KOs) ) from Canada.
Recall, June 19 in New York (USA) Beterbiev stopped Smith in the second round. As per order — vRING report.
According to Joe, Arthur didn’t do it cleanly. Although the losers, apparently, have no claims against him.
“I have never seen Joe so shocked. And, of course, I give Beterbiev his due. He is a real fighter, skillful and accurate,” said Deguardia. “But we spoke to the referee before the fight. We didn’t like the idea of hitting the back of the head and we focused on it (referee). However, I saw that the last blow in the battle was delivered to the back of the head. And I’ve seen a few of the same hits before. I know that once the referee warned him. But, again, nothing can be taken away from Beterbiev. He’s a great fighter.”
“Before the fight, we knew that there would be two punchers in the ring, which means everything could end quickly,” the promoter emphasized. – Many analysts quite rightly said that the first accurate and correct hit can predetermine the entire fight. That is exactly what happened. I think if Joe had been hit by one of his bombs it would have been a different story. But Beterbiev got in. That’s all”.
Konstantin Tszyu also commented on Beterbiev’s victory over Smith.
Source:
boxing scene