Tyron Zeuge has been quietly running through the super middleweight division and has done so again, dominating Paul Smith to retain the WBA "regular" super middleweight title.
Zeuge defeated Smith via unanimous decision (119-108, 119-108, 119-108) to continue his run as the WBA champion. After Smith threatened early in the third round, Zeuge completely outworked Smith, cruising through the championship rounds of the fight and dropping Smith in the last round.
Zeuge's offense was relentless in the second half of the fight, landing numerous combinations in the seventh round and landed a big right uppercut that nearly hurt Smith. While Zuege is the world champion, he only holds the secondary version of the WBA super middleweight title, with George Groves holding the governing body's "super" super middleweight title.
The 34-year-old Smith, who has been a pro boxer since 2003, has now lost four of his last seven fights after starting his career with a 35-3 record. For Smith, it was a long road to get back to fighting for a world title at 168 pounds. After unsuccessfully challenging Arthur Abraham for the WBO super middleweight title twice, Smith lost to Andre Ward, who has gone onto to win the unified light heavyweight championship last year. Smith then won his three fights in 2016, which set him up for a third world title opportunity.
Earlier in the card, Paul's brother Stephen, a former two-time world title challenger in the super featherweight division, knocked out Karoly Gallovich. Stephen Smith is the current WBC Silver super featherweight champion and is 25-3 as a pro boxer.
