{"id":10785,"date":"2015-06-20T10:09:27","date_gmt":"2015-06-20T14:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=10785"},"modified":"2015-06-20T10:09:36","modified_gmt":"2015-06-20T14:09:36","slug":"kennetts-caputo-smith-back-in-ring-sat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=10785","title":{"rendered":"Kennett’s Caputo-Smith back in ring Sat."},"content":{"rendered":"

Seeks return after health issues knock him off Mayweather-Pacquiao undercard<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Denny Dyroff<\/span>,<\/strong>\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_20140722_224358\"<\/a>

Health issues knocked Kennett Squares Anthony Caputo Smith off the undercard of the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, but he returns to the ring Saturday night in Valley Forge.<\/p><\/div>\n

There are a lot of things that can cause a temporary elevation in a person\u2019s blood pressure including alcohol, caffeine, room temperature, smoking and emotional stress.<\/p>\n

Being scheduled to fight on the undercard of an international boxing event which is billed as the \u201cFight of the Century\u201d can definitely initiate a bit of emotional stress.<\/p>\n

Just ask Kennett Square pro boxer Anthony Caputo Smith.<\/p>\n

Last month, Smith was scheduled to fight Andrew Omotunde Tabiti on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Smith was in the dressing room getting ready for his fight and he got knocked out — without ever stepping in the ring.<\/p>\n

Las Vegas fight officials told Smith his blood pressure was too high and that we would not be permitted to fight.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Smith rebounded from the emotional KO in fine form. He returned home, continued to train hard and now is set to fight Garrett Wilson on June 20 at the Valley Forge Casino Resort.<\/p>\n

The fight, which is the main event of a six-bout professional card at the casino in King of Prussia, will be a 12-round showdown with Smith\u2019s Pennsylvania State Cruiserweight title on the line.<\/p>\n

Smith may have put the Las Vegas incident behind him but it\u2019s something he will remember until his dying day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got the call three weeks before the fight,\u201d said Smith, who is nicknamed \u201cThe Bull.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t know why they called me that late. They probably didn\u2019t want their fighter\u2019s opponent to be prepared. It seemed that everything surrounding the fight was set up for us to fail.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fight was on a Saturday night and Smith and his team were expecting to fly out to Las Vegas on on Wednesday. Instead, Mayweather Promotions changed their tickets to Thursday night. And, instead of a non-stop to Vegas, the air routing took them to L.A. and then to Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Instead of a four-hour trip, they spent more than 13 hours on the journey. When they finally arrived in Las Vegas around 2:30 a.m. Friday, the situation really started to take a turn for the worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t get nothing,\u201d said Smith. \u201cThey didn\u2019t pick us up. There were no hotel rooms for us. They didn\u2019t have our credentials. We got to the MGM Grand Hotel and we weren\u2019t on the list. My trainer had to use his own credit card to pay for the rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tabiti, Smith\u2019s scheduled opponent , was trained by Mayweather and has a 9-0 (9 KOs) record against a hand-picked and relatively soft lineup of opponents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were definitely setting us up to fail,\u201d said Smith, who is 15-4-0 (10 KOs). \u201cTabiti hasn\u2019t been in the ring with anyone like me. I was going to steamroll.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeading up to the fight, I had five physicals to make sure I passed every one. I train in South Philly and I was running every day. I was in great shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, at the weigh-in in Vegas, Smith\u2019s blood pressure was elevated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a stressful time and they had us running all around,\u201d said Smith. \u201cWhen they took my blood pressure at the weigh-in Friday afternoon, I told the doctor that if you do it with the digital monitor, it\u2019s always higher for me and that if you do it with the manual one, it\u2019s always lower. He took it again with the manual cuff and it was lower.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt went the same way the night of the fight. I was getting ready to put the gloves on. They took my blood pressure twice on digital and then said they forgot to bring the manual one. Ten minutes later, a lady comes into the dressing room and said I couldn\u2019t fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayweather Productions runs Las Vegas and they could have made it work. The way they treated us was a joke. They stripped us of our wristbands, told us to leave the arena and took us to a conference room in the MGM Grand Hotel where we could watch the main event on TV.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it turned out, Mayweather Productions not only did not give Smith the five-figure paycheck he would have received had the fight happened, they didn\u2019t even provide meal money for Smith and his entourage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way they treated us was a joke,\u201d said Smith. \u201cIt was so unprofessional. Even club dates are better. Mayweather Productions sets its fighters up to win — no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Smith is back at home and fighting in a venue just 30 miles from his home. He has been given the green light by the cardiologist and is ready to defend the Pennsylvania State Cruiserweight title he won with a split decision over Anthony Ferrante last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking to defend my title,\u201d said Smith. \u201cI haven\u2019t felt this hungry in years. Growing up in Philly, you have to fight the tough fight. That\u2019s where we get our toughness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith won the first 13 fights of his career — most of which were fought at the Dover Downs Hotel & Casino in Dover, Delaware. The venue was also the site of his first loss — a TKO by Kevin Engel on August 31, 2012. In his next fight, Caputo Smith rebounded with a 10-round majority decision over Dhafir Smith to win the USA Pennsylvania State light heavyweight title.<\/p>\n

After that, Smith traveled to Las Vegas to fight undefeated Sean Monaghan for the WBC Continental Americas light heavyweight title at the Thomas & Mack Center. Unfortunately for him, he was on the wrong end of a TKO.<\/p>\n

Smith returned to this area for a fight against Anthony Ferrante for the vacant USA Pennsylvania State cruiserweight title. Smith logged a split decision to win the belt in the fight at Harrah\u2019s Philadelphia in Chester. After the Dhafir Smith fight, Smith decided to move up from the Light Heavyweight class (175 pounds) to the Cruiserweight division (200 pounds).<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving up to cruiserweight changed everything,\u201d said Smith. \u201cI was coming down every fight from 215, 220 to make 175 and that was too much. I was killing myself to make that weight. I went to cruiserweight and won the Pennsylvania State title.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson, who is nicknamed \u201cThe Ultimate Warrior,\u201d has a 13-9-1 record with two KOs. The 32-year-old fighter from Philadelphia is 5-8 and has a 72.5-inch reach. In his last four fights, he has lost to Russia\u2019s Alexander Alekseev, Ukraine\u2019s Vyacheslav Glazkov, South Africa\u2019s Thabiso Mchunu and Ukraine\u2019s Vyacheslav Shabranskyy.<\/p>\n

The card also features Keenan Collins vs. Pavel Miranda (middleweight), Coy Evans vs. Jose Bustos (junior lightweight), Kevin Garcia vs. Jack Grady (lightweight), Samuel Quinones vs. Ryan Belasco (junior welterweight) and Eric Spring vs. Robert Sweeny (junior middleweight).<\/p>\n

Saturday night\u2019s boxing show at the Valley Forge Casino Resort (1160 First Avenue, King of Prussia, 610-354-8118, https:\/\/vfcasino.com\/events\/live-boxing<\/a>) will have its first bout at 6:45 p.m. Tickets are priced at $50, $75 and $100.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seeks return after health issues knock him off Mayweather-Pacquiao undercard By Denny Dyroff,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times There are a lot of things that can cause a temporary elevation in a person\u2019s blood pressure including alcohol, caffeine, room temperature, smoking and emotional stress. Being scheduled to fight on the undercard of an international boxing event which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13],"tags":[4254,4256,365],"class_list":["post-10785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","tag-anthony-caputo-smith","tag-boxing","tag-kennett-square"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10790,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10785\/revisions\/10790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}