Joe Smith Jr. expected to have a title in his possession by the time Artur Beterbiev entered the ring for his most recent title defense.

A drastic change of plans during fight week instead left Smith without a February fight when Maxim Vlasov tested positive for Covid-19. Their vacant WBO light heavyweight title fight was delayed by six weeks, leaving the top-rated contender deep into a second consecutive training camp at the time Beterbiev (16-0, 16KOs) ended a lengthy layoff with a 10th round knockout of Adam Deines this past March in Moscow.

Beterbiev hadn’t fought since claiming the lineal championship and unifying the WBC/IBF belts in his 10th round knockout of Oleksandr Gvozdyk in their Oct. 2019 battle of unbeaten light heavyweight rulers. A combination of ring rust and general disinterest led to a methodical approach to his aforementioned win versus the overmatched Deines, winning nearly every round before closing the show midway through the 10th round of their March 20 clash on ESPN.

The night essentially ended the way most expected, though with several viewers expecting a little more from the reigning light heavyweight king. Chief among them was his next potential target.

“His performance was pretty good, considering he was out for a while,” Smith told krikya360.com. “He fought a guy he was supposed to get out of there. I thought he’d get him out of there a little earlier.

“Hopefully, everything goes well for us [on Saturday] and we can give the fans the fight they way. First thing is to get this [unfinished business] out of the way.”

Smith adopts that mentality of the realization that he still has some work to do in order to get that fight over the line. Six weeks after leaving Las Vegas without anything to show for it, the 31-year-old contender prepares to face Vlasov this Saturday in front of a sold-out crowd at Osage Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The original blueprint called for the fight to serve as the launching point for a three-belt light heavyweight championship unification clash later this evening. The new set of circumstances at least provide greater perspective of there being more at stake than just a vacant title this weekend.

“It’s nice knowing who I will fight next, assuming everything works out [on Saturday],” Smith told krikya360.com of the potential WBC/IBF/WBO unification bout later this year. “Of course, I always expected to beat Vlasov—not looking past him, just confident that I will beat him—and I always expected Beterbiev to beat [Deines].”

“It’s good to see what opportunities are out there. I don’t like looking too far ahead though. Right now, all I can see is beating this guy (Vlasov) and winning the title.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for krikya360.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox