you could also do something like:
function rt_before_after($content) {
$replace = "</b>";
$shortcontent = strstr($content, $replace, true).$replace;
if ($shortcontent === false) $shortcontent = $content;
return $shortcontent;
}
add_filter('the_content', 'rt_before_after');
It should look for the first </b>
in your content and return everything before that. it then adds the </b>
back. The function takes that string and replaces your content.