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Home » John Moralde returns June 19 following tragic Brayd Smith bout

John Moralde returns June 19 following tragic Brayd Smith bout

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The undefeated Filipino, 21, won a ten round unanimous decision over Smith, who was 23 and also unbeaten at the time, to improve his record to 12-0 and claim the WBC Asian belt although the fight will forever be remembered for entirely different reasons.

Smith collapsed 90 minutes after the March 14 fight had ended due to a bleed on his brain, and after spending two days in a medically induced coma on life support, ‘The Great White’ passed away at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane.

Boxing pales into insignificance when someone’s life ends in such a way due to them just doing their job and hopefully Moralde won’t be too greatly affected by the death of Smith – which was clearly not his fault.

‘Mulawin’ attempts to pick up the pieces and continue on with his career when he battles another fighter with a perfect record in Evgeny Smirnov in Spain. Russian Smirnov, also 21, won the WBC Youth belt in his last contest when outpointing Noe Raygoza in Noginsk and now aims to improve his seven-fight winning streak against Moralde.