WBO light-heavyweight contender Joe Smith Jr. is after the biggest available names in his division.
“The Irish Bomber” is scheduled to fight Russia’s Maxim Vlasov on February 13 in Las Vegas for the vacant WBO championship of the world.
The belt has been vacated for over a year now after Mexico’s Saul Alvarez left it after beating Sergey Kovalev.
Smith, 31, is pretty confident he’ll emerge victorious from his next outing and it’s already planning his next moves in the stacked light heavyweight division.
“I actually prefer to be the underdog but it’s great that people are seeing that I’m a top contender. I think everybody is starting to see that they can’t underestimate me,” said Joe Smith Jr to Seconds out about being the favorite against Vlasov.
“And I can see that he’s an aggressive fighter, he’s busy, he’s tall, he’s rangy, but I believe I can overpower him and outwork him. And I think that’s definitely going to play a part because I’ve been in tough fights before, and probably more than he has.
“He’s had a couple of tough fights,” said Joe Smith about him having more experience than Vlasov. “I believe I’ve fought the better competition and I’ve been more active, and I feel I have the advantage that way as well.
“It’s going to mean a lot. Becoming a world champion is everything I’ve been working for. That’s why I take the big fights and hope for the title. So this time around, I believe I can bring it home. My next goal is to unify titles. I would like to fight the other champions out there”, Smith added.
