Boy, has someone missed the boat with Joe Smith Jr.
The heavy-hitting blue collar light heavyweight from Long Island had the clearest path in all of boxing to big, quick money. Back-to-back knockout wins over Andrzej Fonfara and Bernard Hopkins set up the 27-year-old for the kind of financial score that could've made him financially secure for the rest of his life.
In boxing, you can never underestimate the earning potential of a good-looking, likeable, working class kid with a big punch. When one of those gems comes around, promoters are smart to hold on to them and squeeze out as much money as possible before things go south. And, make no mistake about it, Smith could've been a money machine.
But, instead of scooping up piles of cash and raking in endorsement deals, Smith is stuck in a high risk/low reward HBO undercard bout July 15 against Sullivan Barrera. Smith-Barrera is a 50-50 fight and it has the potential to derail Smith's career before he can ever cash in on the prestige of scoring two consecutive "unthinkable" upset knockouts.
Of course, much of Smith's earning potential is contingent upon winning a world title-something which has not been in the cards since none of the current world champs have been eager to sign up to face him.
Months were wasted pursuing WBC champ Adonis Stevenson, who would eventually walk away from Smith's challenge in favor of granting Smith KO victim, Fonfara, a second chance at the title. Three-belt titlist Sergey Kovalev would sign on to face Andre Ward in a high-profile bout and then, in turn, new champ Ward would grant Kovalev a rematch seven months later.
All of this has left Smith out in the cold and minus at least a couple of seven-figure paydays.
One wonders whether it would've been smarter to forego a risky Barrera fight in favor of a couple of simpler quick-score KOs on some TV show somewhere. Surely, a spot or two could've been wrangled somewhere in the months between losing out on a Stevenson bout and signing on to face Barrera. The best move for the Smith business would've been to wait on the Ward-Kovalev 2 winner, then offer himself as a beatable, but entertaining foe with a "name" and hope for another big Smith shot to land and bring about another big upset. At the very least, with a valiant effort in defeat, he gets a couple more sizable post-title fight paydays on that performance, alone.
As it is now, though, Team Smith hangs their hopes on coming out victorious from a risky Barrera challenge, knowing full well that a loss on July 15 pretty much means the end of everything. Without the right momentum and the Fonfara/Hopkins talking points, Smith is just another challenger and way too risky with his one-punch power to get selected from a sea of other potential challengers.
A loss to Barrera (or even a bad showing in victory) makes Smith disappear and all the money that was just waiting to be shoveled into his pockets blows away.
That's what's facing Joe Smith Jr. on July 15. Do or die; do or be pushed to the sidelines. Blame whoever you like for this predicament-maybe Smith just came up at the wrong time-but the fact is that a LOT of money will be left on the table should things not go according to plan against Barrera.