A critical look at the past week in boxing
GOOD
Artur Beterbiev’s victory over Joe Smith Jr. on Saturday was one of the easiest of his career.
That isn’t meant to minimize the Montreal-based Russian’s victory or Smith’s past accomplishments, which are considerable. It merely underscores what we hear all the time, that there are levels to boxing.
Smith is a strong puncher; Beterbiev is a strong puncher who can also box, which is a product of his long amateur career. The result on Saturday – a second-round knockout – was predictable.
Beterbiev (18-0, 18 KOs) quickly closed the distance on Smith (28-4, 22 KOs). And once he did, the willing, but overmatched American simply couldn’t avoid the power punches coming his way. Beterbiev was too good for him.
Every punch that landed did more and damage, until the battered, helpless Smith could take no more in the second round.
I wouldn’t call it the greatest victory in Beterbiev’s career for the reason stated above. Levels. His 10th-round stoppage of Oleksandr Gvozdyk to unify two 175-pound titles in 2019 was more impressive given Gvozdyk’s ability.
However, the victory at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden was huge in terms of where it could lead. He took Smith’s title, giving him three of the four major belts. Now he hopes to face Dmitry Bivol, who holds the fourth.
Who would win a fight between Beterbiev and Bivol for the undisputed championship? Well, first, I wouldn’t draw any conclusions based on what happened on Saturday. Bivol is on Beterbiev’s level, although he has a completely different style.
Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs) has limited power but he’s a master boxer, as he demonstrated in his one-sided victory over Canelo Alvarez last month. He would give Beterbiev problems, just as Gvozdyk did.
I would give Beterbiev an edge over Bivol because of his combination of ability and power but it’s essentially a 50-50 matchup. Let’s hope it happens.
BAD
Smith’s setback has to be painful for him.
Nothing is more devastating than pouring your heart and soul into a major fight and then failing miserably, as Smith did. And the fact it happened an hour from his Long Island neighborhood – in front of hundreds of his devoted fans – must make it particularly depressing for him.
That feeling will fade, though. In time he will look back on his accomplishments with great pride.
I’ve often said that former lightweight titleholder Rafael Ruelas got more out of his limited natural ability – 100% — than any other fighter I ever encountered.
Smith might be Ruelas’ equal in that regard. The one-time union worker has only so-so boxing skills yet defeated a number of 175-pounders who arguably were more talented than he is (Andrzej Fonfara, Bernard Hopkins, Jesse Hart, Eleider Alvarez and Maxim Vlasov) , won a major belt and took part in a title-unification bout.
That, in its entirety, is called a dream come true.
How’d he do it?
He and Ruelas were blessed with punching power, which helped them overcome deficiencies. That’s only part of the story, though. They relied more on grit and determination than anything else, the will to win fights that they should probably have lost.
Ruelas got up from two first-round knockdowns to outpoint Freddie Pendleton and win his lightweight title in 1994. Smith struggled much of his fight against Vlasov in April of last year but won the final two rounds on all three cards to pull out a victory and win his title.
Grit, determination. Those attributes can take you a long way.
Smith will never be remembered as a great fighter. The skill set isn’t there. At the same time, he will always be admired as a fighter who wouldn’t allow his limitations to derail his pursuit of his dreams.
WORSE
Boxing lost a legend this past Monday.
Carlos Ortiz, one of the greatest lightweights of all time and a Hall of Famer, died in his home state of New York. He was 85.
Ortiz was a native of Ponce, Puerto Rico who moved with his family to New York City when he was 8 years old. It was there that he discovered street fighting, organized boxing and his unusual talent.
He was an excellent technical boxer with solid power and unusual durability. He was stopped only once in his career, in his final fight against a prime Ken Buchanan.
Hall of Fame writer said in an ESPN article that Ortiz “had it all. He was an almost-perfect boxer-fighter: quick, strong, smart and hard-punching, with a swift, sharp left jab.”
Ortiz (61-7-1, 30 KOs) won a junior welterweight title in 1959 but had his greatest success when he moved down to lightweight, a division he dominated for most of the 1960s. He had two title reigns between 1962 and 1968.
His victims were among a who’s who of the best little fighters of the era. Among them: fellow Hall of Famers Duilio Loi (who beat Ortiz in two other fights), Joe Brown, Flash Elorde (twice), Ismael Laguna (against whom he went 2-1) and Sugar Ramos (twice).
And many of his greatest successes occurred in hostile terriotry In addition to the U.S. and Puerto Rico, he fought in Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Panama, the Philippines, Argentina and Mexico.
The late, great boxing writer and historian Bert Randolph Sugar once ranked Ortiz No. 87 on his list of 100 greatest fighters of all time, which was saying something given the thousands of elite fighters who have stepped through the ropes.
That kind of resume and respect gives you an idea why he’s considered one of the greatest Puerto Rican fighters of all time, perhaps the greatest.
He certainly was in the class of perhaps more-familiar countrymen Wilfredo Gomez, Felix Trinidad, Hector Camacho, Wilfredo Benitez and Edwin Rosario. The write rGraham ranked him No. 1.
Another Hall of Fame boxing journalist, Hugh McIlvanney, writing in The Observer after Ortiz’s second victory over the great Ismael Laguna, gave Ortiz the ultimate compliment: “[He] demonstrated again that he possesses virtually every attribute required in a professional boxer.”
RIP, champ.
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