DETROIT, MICHIGAN – Most fight fans planned to tune in to SHOWTIME boxing’s ShoBox: The New Generation March 10 show to see two-time Olympic gold medalist Claressa “T Rex” Shields’ historic moment – a women’s fight headlining a premium television event.
The co-main event featuring top-10 ranked bantamweights Antonio Nieves and Detroit-based Russian Nikolay Potapov was an intriguing bout, and involved Nieves’ defense of his WBO NABO title.
However, another pair of up and coming bantamweight prospects – Detroit’s James Gordon-Smith (11-1, 6 KOs) and Chicagoan Joshua Greer, Jr. (12-1-1, 5 KOs) – quickly put aside all of the technical aspects, displayed later in Nieves-Potapov co-main, to violently trade leather until there was only one man standing.
Gordon-Smith entered the fight undefeated and with a hometown crowd fiercely rooting him on against the confident visitor from Chi-town. Gordon-Smith looked to take the lead in the exchanges to start the fight, but Greer remained poised as he circled around the ring trading shot-for-shot. The two fighters combined for an amazing 52 total power punches in a frenetic first round per PunchStat.
Greer continued to fight masterfully backing up slipping in short shots against JGS’s pressure. In round two as the fight moved into the mid-round, he caught Gordon-Smith with multiple power punches that slowed up the hometown fighter.
The following round Gordon-Smith continued coming forward but Greer continued to control the fight, besting his opponent in power punches 64 to 49 – neither fighter scored more than five jabs in any of the rounds. Greer’s pressure only appealed to one of the judges over rounds two and three.
In round four, another evenly contested 3-minutes of action, Gordon-Smith narrowly edged out Greer for the lead in power punches landed for the first time in the bout. However, Greer’s one punch edge in jabs landed resulted in an even round for total punches landed.
The fight’s competition level, each fighter’s mettle and resiliency was probably best demonstrated in the fifth round where Greer scored his first knock down, but a determined Gordon-Smith subsequently fought his way fully back in to the fight over the round’s final minute.
Perhaps Gordon-Smith’s spirited rally only set him up for Greer’s finest counter punch of the night. That would come later, but in 6th round’s opening minute Gordon-Smith landed a solid short left hook that represented his most effective punch in a few rounds. However, just as the Detroit prospect’s confidence fully returned, at 2:06 the slick Greer slipped a Gordon-Smith to counter with a thunderous right hand that immediately sent Gordon-Smith to the canvas, awkwardly toppled backwards. Gordon-Smith’s condition prompted referee Harvey Dock to wave off the fight simultaneously as a ringside medical physician entered the ring to make his way over to the downed fighter.
Greer criss-crossed the ring several times elated with his explosive ending to the fight, and while the medical team got Gordon-Smith to a stool along the ropes, Team Greer repeatedly raised a white pillow into the air that read “Night Night” – the perfect mantra for a fighter nicknamed “Don’t Blink”.
Unfortunately for James Gordon-Smith, the knockout loss made him the 160th fighter to lose his undefeated record on ShoBox.
After the fight Greer spoke about his perfectly timed right hand, “I guess he blinked. That was the problem.
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“He caught me with some good shots, but I had a good training camp. I could fight through anything.
“I told everyone when I got here I didn’t have that pillow for no reason. I said don’t blink and I wasn’t playing. I knew I was going to get him.
“He surprised me because I thought I would get him inside three rounds.
“I knew what I came to do. I’m excited but I’m not shocked. My team knew what would happen and they had confidence in me. I knew it was only a matter of time.
Regarding his unexpected ringside prop (maybe for fights outside of Chicago) Greer explained, “The pillow is just my trademark. It’s nothing personal. You have to stand out somehow. That’s just what I do. Nothing personal to him.”
The fight itself was wildly entertaining, and the knockout will undoubtedly garner Greer strong consideration for knockout of the year, but fight fans learned firsthand to be completely attentive when the 22-year old Chicagoan is in action.
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