Joe Smith Jr. had to be relieved as much as anything else.
The light heavyweight titleholder, facing his third scheduled opponent for his first defense, stopped Steve Geffrard in the ninth round Saturday night at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York.
Geffrard, a former amateur standout who took the fight on eight days notice, boxed well at times but was outworked and ultimately overwhelmed the hard-punching champion.
Smith (28-3, 22 KOs) had won the vacant WBO 175-title by defeating Maxim Vlasov by a majority decision last April.
He was originally scheduled to make his first defense against Umar Salamov in October but Smith contracted COVID-19 and had to pull out. That fight wasn’t rescheduled, which opened the door for Callum Johnson to challenge Smith.
Then Johnson tested positive for the virus, which required Smith’s handlers to embark on a frantic search for another replacement. They went through a number of potential before Geffrard, who had been training for another fight, finally agreed to step in.
The Miami product, who had won his previous 18 fights but had never gone past eight rounds, demonstrated that he has some ability. He fought behind a peek-a-boo defense that made it difficult for Smith to land clean punches. And Geffrard (18-3, 12 KOs) jabbed well and followed with some good power shots at times.
However, Smith, stalking his prey most of the fight, was the busier puncher and his shots – including some hard right hands – began to wear Geffrard down by the middle of the scheduled 12 rounds.
Finally, in the ninth round, Smith unleashed a flurry of punches with Geffrard’s back against the ropes that forced the beaten challenger to take a knee and prompted his corner to stop the fight.
The official time was 37 seconds into Round 9.
“He really brought it today,” a diplomatic Smith said. “It was a great fight. As you can see, he’s a great boxer, a good survivor. I was trying to get him out of there early, but I realized he was very tough and I wasn’t going to be able to do that.
“I tried to wait until the later rounds and started throwing more combinations to pick him apart.”
It probably wasn’t the finest performance in Smith’s career but it was solid given the bumpy road to his first defense and a lack of time to prepare for a well-schooled boxer with a respected trainer in his corner, Kevin Cunningham.
Now it’s on to bigger, more-compelling matchups against the best in the division – with fellow titleholders Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol at the top of the list – if those fights can be made.
And there’s a superstar from Mexico who has also piqued Smith’s interest if he’s willing to move up from 168 to face him.
“[Beterbiev] is what I want,” he said. “I want to get back in the gym, work on my craft, and like I say each and every time I get in the ring, I’m going to get better and better. I believe the next time you see me, I’ll be ready for anybody. …
“If Canelo [Alvarez] wants to come to 175 and fight me, I’m ready for him. That’s the fight I want. Everybody would love to see that fight. It would be a big deal.”
