Stephen Smith, Callum Smith and Paul Smith win on Goodison Park undercard
Sunday 29 May 2016 22:05, UK
Stephen, Callum and Paul Smith earned victories at Goodison Park on the undercard to Tony Bellew’s world title fight.
Stephen recorded the most impressive performance of Liverpool's boxing brothers with a seventh-round stoppage of the infamously tough Daniel Brizuela.
In claiming the WBC 'Silver' super-featherweight belt, 'Swifty' will immediately return to the top of the world ranks despite dropping a decision to IBF champion Jose Pedraza last time out.
Smith controlled the duration of his fight against Brizuela, who had previously suffered stoppages to Luke Campbell and Tommy Coyle when visiting the UK.
Frequent use of body shots paid dividends for Smith - he scored at will and, by the middle rounds, the durable Argentine was noticeably slowing down.
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Brizuela's feet became ponderous by the seventh and Smith landed a stiff left hook amid a flurry of shots that caused the first knock-down. Brizuela predictably returned to the front-line but, after going down moments later due to a body shot, referee Ian John-Lewis stepped in.
The WBC belt which Smith has targeted will next be defended by Francisco Vargas against Orlando Salido.
Earlier, Callum was frustrated by the tenacious Cesar Reynoso before forcing a sixth-round stoppage.
Reynoso could have been forgiven for calling it quits after a heavy first-round knock-down - Callum connecting with a short left hook - but the Argentine clambered back up for more.
British and European champion Callum had a colossal size advantage and continued to stalk Reynoso but found his travelling foe to be tough and defensively-capable. Callum never looked threatened but, in the second and third rounds, had trouble finding his target.
Callum, who is awaiting his mandatory shot at Badou Jack's WBC super-middleweight title, was guilty of seeking a stoppage too eagerly and walked into counters that bloodied his nose but forced a second knock-down after a left hook to the body in the fourth.
Another body shot put Reynoso down again in the fifth yet the gritty South American still wouldn't go away. It was testament to his mettle that the stoppage arrived with Reynoso still firmly on his feet, although he was absorbing punches without reply.
Paul Smith earned a six-round decision against Bartlomiej Grafka for his second win in a month.
The eldest of the four brothers stopped Bronislav Kubin three weeks ago in his first fight since dropping three bouts against Arthur Abraham (twice) and Andre Ward.
Paul got some valuable ring-time under his belt against the game Grafka to extend his record to 37-6.