Eddie Hearn has revealed he would like Callum Smith to fight at Anfield.
The 32-year-old produced another highlight-reel knockout on Saturday night at the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia.
Smith, whose only defeat as a pro came to Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez back in December 2019, returned to the scene of his greatest night, boxing back at the venue where he captured the WBA Super world super-middleweight title and won the World Boxing Super Series tournament at the weight against George Groves nearly four years ago.
‘Mundo’ cleaned out former European light-heavyweight champion Mathieu Bauderlique of France inside four rounds in a final eliminator for Artur Beterbiev who holds the WBC world title in the 175-pound division, as part of the supporting cast to Oleksandr Usyk’s rematch win over Anthony Joshua for the WBA Super, IBF, IBO and WBO world heavyweight titles as well as Tyson Fury’s recently-relinquished Ring Magazine title in the sport’s premier division.
Smith, now 29-1 (21 KOs) looked impressive against the former Olympic bronze medallist, who looked to throw bombs early on with Smith taking his time in the pocket and looking to simply outbox his opponent.
But with the Frenchman continuing to throw big shots, the Liverpudlian saw an opportunity and threw an excellent counter left to drop his opponent, before finishing him with a similar shot in the same round, getting the win after one minute and 53 seconds of the fourth round with Bauderlique being attended to by medics after being left stricken on the bottom rope.
And the aforementioned Hearn, who has promoted Smith since he turned professional a decade ago has named the home of Liverpool Football Club as the place for Smith to fight the undefeated Russian.
He told Sky Sports:
“Beterbiev would be a shootout – I’d love to have that fight at Anfield.”
Beterbiev (18-0, 18 KOs) has yet to go the distance as a pro and holds, along with the WBC title for which Smith is now mandatory, the IBF and WBO titles in the light-heavyweight division.
The Canadian-based fighter was last in action in June and recently had to postpone a scheduled clash at the back end of October due to a leg injury. He is likely to be out until 2023 when he’s expected to face Brit Anthony Yarde.
Yarde (22-2, 21 KOs) is the mandatory challenger to the WBO title and has held the number one position with the sanctioning body for some considerable time. It is understood that will come before a match-up with Smith, who is a former British, Commonwealth and European champion down at super-middleweight.
The finish of Smith’s fight with Bauderlique was similar to that of his light-heavyweight debut against Lenin Castillo last September, with that fighter also being cleaned out early in the fight, and the youngest of the four fighting brothers from Merseyside is relishing the opportunity to have a world title around his waist again.
Speaking after his win over Bauderlique, Smith told Sky Sports:
“[It was a] good performance.
“It’s been a long time out of the ring and good to get back regardless of where it is. I have a lot of good memories here and it puts me in line for a world title, so [it was a] good night all around.
“He engaged, he caught me a few times and I went head-hunting, Buddy [McGirt, Smith’s coach] was screaming to calm down. I think he’s happy with the finish and we keep moving forward.
“[Bauderlique] came out game, fair play to him. It was a bit of a shootout but regardless, I was confident of my own ability.
“I want a world title, that’s all I want. I want to be a two-weight world champion. I just want to keep winning and at some point, I will become a world champion.”