Definition: In this task, you will be presented with a passage and have to answer a question based on your understanding of the events inferred from the passage. Try to find the best answer that is most likely to fill in "_". Note that the URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].
Input: There are Last-Chance Saloons and then there are bars in which it might be better not to pick a fight. In most boxing eyes Paul Smith Jnr is walking into a beating in California on Saturday night. The eldest of Liverpool’s four fighting brothers has two chances against Andre Ward – slim and none. And as flamboyant promoter Don King is fond of saying: ‘Slim just left town.’ Should Smith do the same? Not when, as a total professional, he has the opportunity to test himself against the best super-middleweight on the planet. Not when, at 32 and with a thoroughly respectable record, he can bring his career to its climax with his third successive fight against a world champion.Brit Paul Smith Jnr fights Andre Ward in Oakland, California on SaturdayLiverpudlian Smith is rated as a massive underdog for the world title fightBut Ward has not fought for 19 months and Smith will fancy his chancesFloyd Mayweather is no closer to announcing his next opponentArgentinian boxer Sergio Martinez retires and will take up career in acting 
 Question:Although that period of inactivity - the consequence of promotional disputes and injuries – has deleted him from most pound-for-pound rankings, _ is still widely perceived as one of the top three or four boxers in the world.

Andre Ward