Bob Arum’s Top Rank have outbid Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom by just $15,000 to win the rights to stage Artur Beterbiev’s mandatory title defence against Callum Smith.
The WBC ordered the fight in March of this year, however a cross promotion agreement clearly wasn’t reached and purse bids were called.
The sanctioning body announced today that Arum and Top Rank won it by the skin of their teeth.
“Top Rank has won the rights to promote the mandatory light heavyweight fight between champion Artur Beterbiev and Callum Smith with $2,115,000 outbidding Matchroom by a mere 15 thousand dollars! Shawn Palmer was present and Carl Moretti on zoom.”
@trboxing has won the rights to promote the mandatory light heavyweight fight between champion Artur Beterbiev and Callum Smith with $2 115 000 outbidding Matchroom by a mere 15 thousand dollars ! Shawn Palmer was present and Carl Moretti on zoom. pic.twitter.com/LNu9ATFMaX
— World Boxing Council (@WBCBoxing) May 2, 2023
As per the WBC’s rules, the purse split will be 70% for the champion and 30% for the challenger – although this can be changed by majority vote. Their bonus scheme will also see 10% of the purse held in escrow for the winner, meaning Smith could leave the ring with the belts and 40%.
He has had just two fights – and two knockouts – up at 175lb following a championship super middleweight run that ended in a loss to Saul ‘Canel’ Alvarez. He recently pulled out of a fight with Pawel Stepien due to injuries, and decided to pursue his title shot rather than reschedule. His promoter, Hearn, had floated the idea of staging the fight in Liverpool.
Beterbiev is the only reigning world champion to have ended every one of his contests by stoppage – a feat he kept up in January by finishing Britain’s Anthony Yarde in the eighth.
He won the IBF strap in 2017, the WBC in 2019 and added the WBO in 2022. The final piece of the puzzle is Dmitry Bivol’s WBA title, but a recent announcement from the WBC to say it would not sanction Bivol to compete due to his status as a Russian national dampened any hopes. Beterbiev himself is Russian, but has Canadian citizenship.