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Jermall Charlo and his handlers scheduled a step up tonight, but they didn't get it, as veteran Antwone Smith missed weight by five pounds and didn't look in good shape at all, before Charlo closed the door on the fight in just the second round.
Smith (23-5-1, 12 KO) was clearly sluggish in round one, and just looked dried out physically, giving the impression that he busted down just to be five pounds overweight, when his body must have just, as he put it, "locked down" on him. He didn't look flabby or soft, just really dry and, like, stale. Not fresh.
Charlo (15-0, 11 KO) looked too fast for Smith in the first round, and then put him down pretty hard in the second. Smith did get up, but was on really bad legs. Referee Tom Taylor took a good look, didn't like what he saw (and rightly so), and ended the fight, which only prevented us from seeing Charlo smash Smith back to the canvas in the next 10 or 20 seconds, so that was a good job by the third man in the ring.
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