Joe Smith Jr. did not take the path of least resistance to reach his second shot at a light heavyweight world title. As he prepares to step into the ring on Saturday against Maxim Vlasov at the Osage Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma (10 p.m. ET, ESPN and ESPN+), with the vacant WBO belt on the line, Smith has been through the spectrum of the highs and lows that come with championship-level boxing.
After getting knocked out in his seventh professional fight back in 2010, Smith (26-3, 21 KOs) rattled off 15 wins over the next five years in the leadup to two victories that changed his career a first-round TKO win over Andrzej Fonfara, followed by a KO of Bernard Hopkins in which Smith knocked Hopkins out of the ring and ended his career with one punch. Smith was an underdog in both of those fights, and he d continue to carry that tag as the fights got even bigger.
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