{"id":109091,"date":"2022-01-13T23:44:13","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T05:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=109091"},"modified":"2022-01-14T13:42:34","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T19:42:34","slug":"joe-smith-jr-defends-his-wbo-light-heavyweight-title-against-steve-geffard-on-saturday-january-15-2022-boxing-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=109091","title":{"rendered":"Joe Smith, JR Defends His WBO Light Heavyweight Title Against Steve Geffard on Saturday January 15, 2022 \u2013 Boxing News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=109091\" rel=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=109091\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-109092 size-medium\" style=\"margin-right: 10px;\" src=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Joe-Smith-Jr-vs-Steve-Geffrard_pose-300x220.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"220\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Joe-Smith-Jr-vs-Steve-Geffrard_pose-300x220.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Joe-Smith-Jr-vs-Steve-Geffrard_pose.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>By \u201cBad\u201d Brad Berkwitt<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>(Photo credit:\u00a0 Mikey Williams\/Top Rank via Getty Images)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This Saturday at the Turning Stone Resort &amp; Casino in Verona New York current WBO Light Heavyweight Champion Joe Smith, JR., 27-3, 21 KO\u2019s defends his belt on ESPN for the first time against unranked Steve Geffrard, 18-2, 12 KO\u2019s who is a last minute replacement for number 11 ranked Callum Johnson, who tested positive for Covid-19, knocking him out of the fight.<\/p>\n<p>Geffrard was in training for a fight that was supposed to take place in Delray Beach, Florida when he got the word about his shot at the title, so he should be in decent fighting shape.<\/p>\n<p>Geffrard was stopped in his pro debut and in his next fight, lost by a split decision, both in 2013. Since then, he has reeled off 16 straight wins, but against C+ level opposition.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, Joe Smith, JR. has faced the far better opposition in his pro career over the last 12 years. On paper, this really no match and a keep busy fight for Smith, JR, who to no fault of his own, had a top 15 opponent who would have been on his dance card.<\/p>\n<p>WBO light heavyweight title holder Joe Smith, JR. figure as the main favorite to win the fight against Steve Geffrard with odds at -1200 per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbettingdime.com\/boxing\/\">Sports Betting Dime<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>[si-contact-form form=&#8217;1&#8242;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By \u201cBad\u201d Brad Berkwitt (Photo credit:\u00a0 Mikey Williams\/Top Rank via Getty Images) This Saturday at the Turning Stone Resort &amp; Casino in Verona New York current WBO Light Heavyweight Champion Joe Smith, JR., 27-3, 21 KO\u2019s defends his belt on ESPN for the first time against unranked Steve Geffrard, 18-2, 12 KO\u2019s who is a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10928],"tags":[28058,15339,28057],"class_list":["post-109091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","category-columns-by-bad-brad-berkwitt","tag-2022-boxing-news","tag-joe-smith","tag-jr-defends-his-wbo-light-heavyweight-title-against-steve-geffard-on-saturday-january-15"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109091"}],"version-history":[{"count":-2,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109091\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}