Smith Jr stops Alvarez in title eliminator

“The Bubble” was the scene for the start back up of Top Rank Boxing’s again and the main event was a WBO Light Heavyweight title eliminator as Eleider Alvarez and Joe Smith Jr. with  Smith Jr. beating him up towards a ninth-round stoppage victory.

The buildup to this fight was that this was a classic crossroads fight as both Alvarez and Smith Jr. was looking to get into the title picture with a win. The opening rounds of this fight played out as such as this was a fight that was guaranteed to have two guys trade bombs with each other. Smith was being the aggressor early on in this fight while being able to elude most of what Alvarez throwing.

Blood from Alvarez’s nose started to pour towards the end of round four and that onslaught from Smith continued in the fifth round. Smith poured it on with heavy rights to close out that round and had given ALavrez all he could handle landing 23 power punches on that round and all of them had bad intentions. The broadcast made note that Alvarez couldn’t take too much of this in the process. The first six rounds of this fight were all Smith as he was the busier fighter but it didn’t stop Alvarez from continuing to come forward.

Yoooo Joe Smith Jr. came to Vegas with some bad intentions ?#AlvarezSmith main event LIVE NOW on ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/qPdHKTlzPe

— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) August 23, 2020

It felt like Alvarez was waiting to land that one shot and that just happened in the seventh round when Alvarez landed a flush right that buckled Smith for a moment. The shot ironically came in the same round as Alvarez’s last victory with the knockout of the year candidate against Michael Seals back in January.

In the ninth round, Smith in the early portion sent Alvarez through the ropes with a right. Alvarez from that part was on his back through the ropes and couldn’t beat referee Tony Weeks ten count to give Smith the knockout victory at 26 seconds of the round.

Welcome to your second Light Heavyweight world title shot, Joe Smith Jr. ?

9 rounds of pure, thorough work, then a lead right + power jab to close the show to start the 10th. Oh my. #AlvarezSmith pic.twitter.com/HGuu4fh1Jt

— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) August 23, 2020

Smith will take on the winner of the other half of the WBO Light heavyweight bracket whenever they coordinate a bout between  Umar Salamov and Maksim Vlaso. But for tonight, Smith looked like a force and the frontrunner for the vacant WBO title tonight.