Lessons Learned from Stephen Smith vs. Devis Boschiero in Liverpool
Stephen Smith moved himself to the front of the queue for a shot at the IBF super featherweight title with a victory over Devis Boschiero.
The local boy thrilled the crowd at the Olympia in Liverpool, England, with a sixth-round stoppage of an opponent who had previously never lost inside the distance.
Here, Bleacher Report takes a look at the some of the key talking points from the main bout as well as some of the other fights following the Matchroom Boxing card.
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Brotherly Love
Beforehand, it looked to be the hardest test of Smith's career. However, it ended up being a career-best performance from the 30-year-old.
After a frustrating spell, Swifty (23-1, 13 KOs) stepped out of the shadows of his brothers—super middleweights Paul and Callum plus light middleweight Liam—with a dazzling display in his own back yard.
He set his stall out from the opening bell, putting Boschiero on the back foot early on. He looked to land shots to the body in particular.
The left hook, landing just under the Italian's ribs, was the punch for Smith.
Boschiero (37-4-1, 19 KOs) felt the full force of one such blow in the sixth round, dropping to the canvas. He managed to beat the count, buying himself extra time by losing his gum shield onto the canvas.
However, when Smith repeated the shot again soon after, the visiting fighter was finished.
The winner admitted afterward that he knew a stoppage was on the cards in the round, per Micheal McKenna of the Liverpool Echo, "The shot actually came in the end when I was looking for it. I knew I was hurting him when I went to the body because I could hear the winces from him."
Wayne Rooney was impressed by Smith's work:
Waiting Game
Smith now has to wait to find out who his next opponent will be.
The current IBF champion is Jose Pedraza, an unbeaten Puerto Rican who will defend the title against Edner Cherry in Cincinnati on October 3.
Eddie Hearn, Smith's promoter, is not certain that Pedraza—who is in Al Haymon's ever-growing stable of fighters—will be next, even if he retains the belt next month.
Per Chris McKenna of the Daily Star, Hearn said, "Sometimes they want to move up, sometimes they want to relinquish the belt, sometimes they don't want to go purse bids. Anything can happen. I wouldn’t be surprised to get a vacant world title shot. That would suit us as we could put the fight on in Liverpool."
Cherry, meanwhile, is a 33-year-old who was born in the Bahamas but is now based in Florida.
He has a 34-6-2 (19 KOs) record that includes defeats at the hands of Timothy Bradley and Paulie Malignaggi, although both losses came at a higher weight.
Regardless of who Smith ends up facing and where the bout occurs, the Englishman should be full of confidence after the beating he handed out to Boschiero.
An Unhappy Return
The undercard in Liverpool was notable for two surprise results.
First, lightweight Sean Dodd made the most of a late chance to fight Gary Buckland, beating the experienced Welshman to potentially earn a shot at British champion Scotty Cardle.
Sport is all about taking opportunities, and Dodd seized his.
Having been drafted in by the promoters at short notice after Cardle had to pull out due to injury, the stand-in proved more than adequate.
Dodd did enough over the 10 rounds to claim the impressive scalp of Buckland, a former British champion at super featherweight, in just his 11th professional outing.
Even the 31-year-old seemed a little surprised at the outcome, according to boxing writer John Angus MacDonald:
In contrast to Dodd's delight, Bradley Saunders endured a night to forget.
The light welterweight was making his comeback from a hand injury that had scuppered a Commonwealth title shot against Dave Ryan earlier in the year.
Renald Garrido's record (14-11-1) suggested he wouldn't pose many problems, even if the Frenchman had never previously been stopped.
Saunders never got to grips with the challenge presented by Garrido, who became more and more dominant with each round.
He dropped the Englishman in the sixth round, though that wasn't quite the end of the fight. Saunders was able to carry on, only to be disqualified for illegal use of the head. You can take a look at the butting incident for yourself:
Garrido reeled back after the incident before dropping down to the canvas, though the pain seemed to disappear as soon as he realised his opponent had been disqualified by the referee.
A first career defeat wasn't even the worst thing to happen to Saunders on the night, though. He later tweeted a picture revealing that he had injured both his hands:
Saunders said afterward, per Tim Rickson of British Boxing News, "I don’t want to go out on getting beat, I’ll learn from it."
Sometimes, a loss isn't the biggest issue for a boxer. Nevermind title shots—Saunders may now be fighting to keep his career alive.
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