WBO Champ Joe Smith Jr. Tests Positive for COVID-19, ESPN Salamov Fight Postponed
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
*Photo Credit: Robert Brizel, Real Combat Media
New York, NY (September 22nd, 2021)– In the latest boxing development to rock the presses, World Boxing Organization World Light Heavyweight champion Joe Smith Jr. has tested positive for the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. His ESPN title defense against Umar Salamov at Hulu Theatre, Madison Square Garden, scheduled for October 30, 2021, has been postponed until he recovers.
Smith Jr., 27-3 with 21 knockouts, Long Island, New York, won the vacant WBO World Light Heavyweight title by 12 round majority decision at Osage Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma, over Maxim Vlasov on April 10, 2021. Salamov, 26-1 with 19 knockouts, Las Vegas, Nevada, by way of Grozny, Russian Federation, has won four World Boxing Organization International Light Heavyweight title bouts. Salamov’s last outing was a 10 rounds split decision win over Sergei Ekimov.
Smith is the latest high-profile boxer, following Oscar De La Hoya, and Tyson Fury, to contract COVID-19 during the pandemic. As the numbers grow worse in the United States, with such mega fights as Anthony Joshua versus Oleksandr Usyk, Tyson Fury versus Deontay Wilder, and Canelo Alvarez versus Caleb Plant still upcoming, one wonders what effect Coronavirus will have on fighters who recover from it. Alexander Povetkin did not apparently recover sufficiently going into his second bout with Dillian Whyte, so the recovery largely depends on the fighter. Smith will not have an easy time with Salamov one way or the other and needs to be at one hundred percent peak condition before even considering or attempting to defend his WBO world title under the present circumstances.
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