Bivol dominant over Smith Jr, Hooker retains

Undefeated WBA light heavyweight champion Dimitry Bivol continued putting his impressive boxing on display last night in a successful, dominant win over Joe Smith Jr. last night at Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York.

Bivol earned his 16th straight win in a row last night in a fight that started slowly but by the third round you can see that Bivol was going to be too much for Smith Jr. The fundamental technique of establishing the jab was the emphasis of Bivol and he employed it early and often, which led him to set up combinations which seemed at will during the middle rounds of this contest. Smith Jr. wasn’t backing down in this match, but he seemed unable to get much going as Bivol was keeping him at bay and also a good distance.

It wasn’t until the later rounds when Smith was able to land a few good shots and applied some pressure to Bivol but by then it was too late. After 12 rounds, it was clear cut who had this won been superior to anyone watching and the judges agreed with 119-109, 119-109, 118-110 all in favor of unanimously with the 28-year-old Bivol.

Thank you all for your support! pic.twitter.com/2ssSSFR9lM

— Dmitry Bivol (@bivol_d) March 10, 2019

In the co-main event, Maurice Hooker defended the WBO junior middleweight title against Mikkel LesPierre. In this contest, Hooker going in had struggled to make weight, That seemed not to matter however as he was simply too much for LesPierre as our own David Payne had pointed out.

What had started out slow in the early round, Hooker by the third round had figured out Lespierre and from this moment on able to do whatever he wanted, landing combinations at will. He had appeared to have knocked Lespierre down in the fifth round even though the referee said it was a slip. Haven’t seen too many slips from a punch but that was his ruling. LesPierre was knocked down in the 9th with a solid left and from there, he became a desperate fighter throwing erratic and wild punches that were just off the mark.

This 12 round matchup went the distance as well and at the end of this one-sided affair, the judges scored it 120-107, 119-108 and 118-109 in favor of Hooker. With this victory, Hooker improves to 26-0 and retains the WBO Jr. Middleweight title.