Artur Beterbiev expects a ‘dangerous fight’ in multi-title defense against Callum Smith
On Saturday, Artur Beterbiev will put his IBF, WBC and WBO light heavyweight titles on the line against former super middleweight titlist Callum Smith at the Centre Videotron, Quebec City, Canada.
Beterbiev, rated at No. 2 by The Ring at light heavyweight, appreciates the tricky nature of this WBC mandatory title fight.
“Like every fight for me, it’s very important,” Beterbiev (19-0, 19 knockouts) told The Ring. “Any fight is dangerous because boxing is dangerous.”
The soon-to-be 39-year-old recognizes the potential threat but wasn’t keen to divulge too much about his battle plan.
“(Smith’s) a good fighter,” he acknowledged. “He has good experience in professional boxing. He’s tall. We’ll see.
“Usually we never talk about our strategy or what we’re going to try to do in this fight. We try to be ready.”
His long-time trainer, Marc Ramsay, expanded a little more on what charge will be facing.
“It’s a good fight, it’s a good challenge for Artur, for our team,” said Ramsay. “Callum is a good, complete fighter, he already make a couple of good fights (at 175-pounds.) He also has that experience. It’s a good challenge, we love it.
“We’re just very happy to make that fight, especially in front our fans in Quebec City and I hope it’s going to be a great fight for everybody.”
Beterbiev had been deep in preparation to face Smith on August 19, when he suffered a bone infection in his jaw, which caused the fight to be postponed by five months.
“I tried to prepare for the fight,” he said. “It’s not my choice to move the fight, it’s not on purpose. I got injured and we needed to postpone it.
“It’s the tooth, I got the injury a long time ago but it got worse. I went to the dentist, he worked on my mouth for one hour, one-and-a-half hours and still I do sparring. I did everything not to postpone this fight but the doctor said it’s no good. Now it’s good.”
The Russian-born Canadian resident spent time on the sidelines before beginning camp.
“(The) doctor said two-months and after two-months I started step by step, jogging, shadow boxing,” he explained. “I went to Russia (for pre-camp) for 25-days. I was in the mountains. (Then I came back to Montreal) for 8-weeks.”
Ramsay says he has modified training camp accordingly for Beterbiev.
“When you get older you change a few little things or you cannot stay in boxing,” said the respected trainer. “Artur to me, right now, I can see he’s as involved technically, he’s a better technical fighter than he was a couple of years ago.
“Maybe you lose a little of something but you can gain a little bit of something also. The balance is still there, he’s a very good power boxer, he still tries to learn something every day in the gym.”
This will also mark the first time Beterbiev has fought since he engaged in a savage back-and-forth shootout with Anthony Yarde last January in what was one of the best fights of the year in 2023.
“Yarde fight is another experience in London,” he said. “I’m happy to be there after Olympic games (in 2012), it was like a recovery, last time I was in London, I was fighting in the Olympic games but it was not very good (Editors Note: Beterbiev lost 17: 13 to Oleksandr Usyk in the quarterfinals) but now it is a little bit better.
“It was a good fight, they prepared very well. I am happy to win this fight and everything is good.”
However, the fight everyone wants to see is Beterbiev versus WBA ruler Dmitry Bivol. The two met in October in a face-off in Saudi Arabia.
In a rare moment, the usually laconic Beterbiev let his guard down when asked if his ultimate goal is to be undisputed light heavyweight champion.
“Yes, it’s a idea, that’s what I’d like to do but don’t tell anyone,” he quipped, playfully laughing.
Smith (29-1, 21 KOs), rated at No. 3 by The Ring at light heavyweight, won the British and European super middleweight titles in impressive fashion and got his big break in the WBSS. He defeated Erik Skoglund (UD 12) and late substitute Nieky Holzken (UD 12) to earn safe passage to the final where he stopped George Groves (KO 7) to become Ring champion and WBA titleholder.
The Englishman struggled to capitalize on that momentum, easily defeating the undersized Hassan N’dam N’Jikam (TKO 3) and laboring against John Ryder (UD 12) in subsequent title defenses before losing to boxing superstar Canelo Alvarez (UD 12). The 33-year-old moved up to 175-pounds and has impressively won both outings in that division.
Beterbiev-Smith, plus undercard bouts, will be broadcast live on ESPN, ESPN Deportes and ESPN+ at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT. The fight will be on Sky Sports at 3 a.m. GMT.
Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at elraincoat@live.co.uk.
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