As it turns out, Jason Sosa, who knocked out Javier Fortuna for the WBA Super Featherweight Championship in June, won’t be facing Jezreel Corrales or Gervonta Davis in his first title defense. Instead, he’ll be putting his belt on the line against Stephen "Swifty" Smith on November 12th in Monte Carlo.
The winner will then be required to face Fortuna as per the term’s of "El Abejon’s" contract.
Smith (24-2, 14 KO) challenged Jose Pedraza for the IBF belt in April, losing a unanimous decision and suffering a knockdown in the process. He’s 12-1 since losing to Lee Selby in 2011. He’s not as significant an opponent as Corrales or as dangerous as Davis, but Smith is a solid test for Sosa (19-1-4, 15 KO) and would be the latter’s second-biggest win to date. With Vasyl Lomachenko, Nicholas Walters, Orlando Salido, and Takashi Miura all busy preparing to tear each other’s heads off, there are definitely worse fights he could have taken.
Elsewhere on the card, Arthur Abraham will reportedly take on Martin Murray in a rematch of their 2015 bout that saw Abraham take a split decision. As "King Arthur" lost his belt to Gilberto Ramirez earlier this year, this one should be a ten-rounder.