Bivol vs Smith Jr: Main event set, Hooker misses weight

WBA light heavyweight titleholder Dmitry Bivol and Joe Smith Jr are set for tomorrow night’s DAZN main event, but there’s some work to do for the co-feature.

Bivol (15-0, 11 KO) weighed in at 173½ for the title defense, with Smith (24-2, 20 KO) coming in at an even 173 pounds, both comfortably below the 175-pound limit.

The fight will be Bivol’s debut on DAZN, after building himself up on HBO for a couple of years. He’s in the discussion for world’s best light heavyweight at the moment. Smith is also making his DAZN debut, in what will be his second fight after coming back from a broken jaw suffered in a 2017 loss to Sullivan Barrera, where Smith went the distance despite the injury.

The co-feature is a WBO junior welterweight title fight, but that’s not quite set just yet. Titleholder Maurice Hooker (25-0-3, 17 KO) came in at 140½, a half-pound over the limit, and there was talk on social media this afternoon that he was five pounds heavy earlier in the day.

Hooker has two hours to make weight, and he could very well do it, but if the rumors have substance, we’d be talking about someone who really had to crash cut the day before a fight.

Challenger Mikkel LesPierre (21-0-1, 10 KO) weighed in fine, at 138¾.

Former title challenger Callum Johnson (17-1, 12 KO) will also be back in action, facing Seanie Monaghan (29-2, 17 KO) in another light heavyweight bout. Johnson weighed in at 173, and Monaghan at 174.

The show will also feature a heavyweight fight, with Sergey Kuzmin (14-0, 11 KO) weighing in at 248½, and Joey Dawejko (19-6-4, 11 KO) at 250.