‘The One’ gets a second shot at becoming a world champion
Long Islander Joe Smith Jr. (27-3, 21KOs) defends his WBO World light-heavyweight title for the first time to England’s Callum Johnson (20-1, 14KOs) at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in New York on January 15.
The Top Rank show will be broadcast live on ESPN in America and BT Sport in the UK.
Currently the challenger is a 5-2 underdog to dethrone the champion, but make sure to look over this William Hill Review if you are going to bet on this first big championship clash of the year.
This will be Smith’s 31st professional bout but his first ever appearance as a defending world champion, still he's the odds on favourite to win at 2-5, with an unlikely draw between the two punchers coming in at 25-1. The draw isn't the widely expected outcome due to the champion's 78% KO ratio (21 KOs from 27 wins), and the challenger is also heavy-handed with 70% (14KOs from 20 wins). So fireworks are expected but a stalemate certainly isn't.
American hero Smith Jr. is promoted by Joe Guardia’s Star Boxing outfit and Johnson is with British promoter Frank Warren, both of which proudly belong to the Boxing Hall of Fame.
Lincolnshire's Johnson has challenged for a world title once before, when he went up against the formidable Artur Beterbiev for the IBF bauble back in 2018, but was stopped in round four in the thrilling fight, by the only reigning world champion with a perfect record consisting of all knockout victories – 17 wins and 17 KOs.
New Yorker Smith Jr. won his world title on a second attempt, having failed to capture the WBA belt against another unbeaten Russian, Dmitry Bivol, in 2019, who is now 19-0 with 11KOs.
So the pair both share a loss to undefeated, dominant world champions, but the more notable comparison is that Johnson dropped Beterbiev during their scrap, and Smith had Bivol hurt in round 10, landing a huge overhand right on the bell that had the champion holding on to the ropes and wobbling back to his corner.
Despite that disappointment, Smith Jr. outpointed light-heavyweight contender Maxim Vlasov (46-4, 26KOs) on a mixed decision, with one judge scoring a draw, to secure his WBO belt.
Also a champion, Johnson has won British and Commonwealth light-heavyweight titles during his 11-year pro career and most recently won the WBO Global title, previously held by the aforementioned Vlasov, with a second-round stoppage. Then came a successful defence, via mixed decision, which awarded him this shot at the big-time.
Known as ‘The Common Man’, born and raised in Long Island, the champion is a local hero for his humble beginnings and for coming up through the ranks the hard way, working in exhaustive labouring jobs with long hours whilst training hard with his coach Jerry Capobianco, who promised he would make him a world champion when they first ever met.
Now he has reached the pinnacle, he has his own company specialising in tree felling services and can dedicate his life to boxing.
Both this pair had outstanding amateur careers, with numerous regional titles in the bag for Smith Jr., culminating in the New York Golden Gloves championship in 2008; but Johnson went a bit further in his vested career by winning Gold at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.
Smith had 50 amateur bouts, whereas Johnson had 120 and won 95 of those, so the Brit possesses a richer boxing background.
In terms of style, teak-tough Joe earned another moniker of ‘The Beast from the East’ for his ability to blast his opponents away with his punching power but Bivol taught him a boxing lesson during their fight so his skills are slightly limited. Kudos for going the distance, where he managed to hurt the champion momentarily, then piled on the pressure in the final two rounds, but he was handily outboxed by a far superior opponent, who failed to finish him early, proving Smith's durability and toughness.
His crowning glory in April this year was a hard-fought fight, but his grit and determination is what won the vacant WBO belt for him. That world title win capped off a run of three fantastic victories, starting with a split decision win over 26-2 Jesse Hart in January 2020; then a stunning one-punch TKO in round nine against once-beaten Eleider Alvarez in August last year, which set up the winning world title shot.
Since his sole defeat to Beterbiev, Johnson has also won three on the spin, with two TKOs and a 10-round mixed decision win in his last fight in October.
Incidentally, his March 2019 comeback fight was against Seanie Monaghan (TKO3), who was the same opponent a young Smith Jr. defeated in the Golden Gloves final shortly before turning over.
Trained by Joe Gallagher, East Midlander Johnson is best at close range where he can unload in powerful hooks and body shots, but Smith Jr. is rangy with a 76” reach, three-inches superior to his challenger, so he will opt to box at range.
If allowed to detonate his right hand from long-range, it could spell trouble for the challenger. The Briton will have to sit on the American’s chest all fight long if he is to outwork and outland his way to the world title, but he will have to keep that up for 12-rounds, which is huge task.
At 36, Johnson knows this is his last roll of the dice so he will give his everything here, but Smith Jr. is as tough as they come.
Both boxers are hard as nails but they have each been hurt and defeated before. Neither will shy away from a tear-up but each have been stopped before, so if they do engage in a war then it will be a case of who lands first. Against Emil Markic, Johnson took the Croatian’s best shots in the opening round, and this is against a man with 25 KOs from 33 wins, he buckled briefly under a good shot, but fought on bravely to bully him into submission in the second round.
This could be a war from the opening bell, as Johnson loves to start fast, like he memorably did against Frank Buglioni with two first-round knockdowns, so this could be a potential fight of the year contender if it doesn’t end too early. But Smith Jr. also starts fast and can boast 15 first and second-round KOs.
It’s difficult to envisage it going the distance, this contest has got fireworks written all over it! Will Callum’s hooks do the damage on the inside or will Joe land a right from range? However it plays out, this is one fight not to missed!