Joe Smith Jr. ended Steve Geffrard’s Cinderella story by KO in 9

In a KO performance, Joe Smith Jr. defended his WBO light heavyweight title for the first time against last-second replacement Steve Geffrard. 

Steve Geffrard valiantly took a title fight against WBO light heavyweight champion Joe Smith Jr. on very short notice, hoping to conclude the night with a Cinderella-like story, but that didn’t happen.

Smith (28-3, 22 KOs) was supposed to fight the U.K.’s Callum Johnson on Jan. 15, but Johnson contracted COVID and was out of the fight. Two days before little-known Geffrard was supposed to fight in a small club show on Jan. 8, he got the call to challenge Smith for a world title.

Geffrard (18-3, 12 KOs) was once an amateur standout, but losing his first two professional contests relegated him to obscurity. Even though he amassed 18 straight wins, Geffrard still didn’t have a promoter and wasn’t getting big fights.

Geffrard hoped to shock the boxing world by living up to his ‘South Florida Cinderella Man’ nickname and become the new champion, but that wasn’t meant to be.

Everybody likes an underdog story, but they’re rare for a reason. It means that the laws of logic have to be defied, which is a monumental occurrence. It’s nice in movies but infrequent in reality.

Geffrard found that out the hard way.

Smith put on a show at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, NY. The 32-year-old from Long Island had his home state in his corner, which helped make Geffrard’s upset dreams even more daunting.

Joe Smith Jr. controlled the action against Steve Geffrard and easily defended his WBO light heavyweight title via KO in 9

Smith jumped out of his corner in round 1 and took the fight to Geffrard. He delivered power punches early, but Geffrard employed a high guard and tried to take Smith’s best punches on his gloves. It wasn’t a bad plan, but he needed to do more to stand a chance of becoming the new champion.

In the following rounds, Geffrard periodically threw a nice jab, but he didn’t have the power to keep Smith off of him. Geffrard had never been past eight rounds, and he was thrust into a 12-round title fight. He tried to be economical with his punches and hoped Smith would slow down.

He didn’t.

Smith kept coming at Geffrard and got better as the rounds went on. He wore Geffrard down and eventually ground him down to dust.

Geffrard looked very hurt at the end of round 5 but fought on. After round 7, Geffrard complained to trainer Kevin Cunningham that something was wrong with his left shoulder. Geffrard was unable to increase his punch output, and Smith took advantage.

In round 9, Smith trapped Geffrard and teed off with a barrage of power punches that beat Geffrard to the canvas. In defeat, Geffrard’s head looked down at the canvas as he took the full count.

Geffrard had nothing left to give. The 31-year-old from Miami has an A-level chin but C-level skills, and it showed against Smith, who scored a round-9 KO victory to retain his belt.

Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol are the other division champions. Smith could find a unification bout against one of the two in 2022. It’s hard to tell how he would fair based on his performance against Geffrard since Geffrard is many levels below them, but Smith’s power is real.

Geffrard deserves credit for taking a chance against Smith, but he just didn’t have the talent to become a world champion.