Callum Smith challenges for world honours against formidable unified title-holder Artur Beterbiev this weekend, and his promoter Eddie Hearn is so confident in the Liverpudlian challenger that he has named the precise punch that will score Smith a knockout win.
Smith is the former WBA super-middleweight champion having defeated George Groves back in 2018, and made two defences of the belt before picking up a first career defeat against pound-for-pound great Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
The loss prompted a move up to 175lbs, and ‘Mundo’ has excelled in his new division thus far, with two stoppage wins in a combined six rounds putting the light-heavyweight scene on notice.
Although, having boxed in just six rounds since defeat to Canelo over three years ago, Beterbiev is a favourite with the bookmakers, twelve months on from his win over another Brit, Anthony Yarde, which maintained his perfect record of 19 fights and 19 stoppage wins.
Despite the Canadian-Russian’s astonishing career since turning professional and fearsome reputation as a man to avoid, Hearn told Boxing News that he expects Smith to stop the knockout-artist, envisioning Smith’s trademark left-hook as the decisive punch.
“Obviously, Callum Smith is going to knock out Beterbiev and then fight Dmitry Bivol for the undisputed championship. I can actually see the knockout now, if you close your eyes, slip, bang, left-hook, out, and Callum Smith is the unified world champion.”
Smith’s left-hook was the deciding factor in his career-best win over Groves, as well as on his 175lb debut where he produced a knockout of the year contender against Gilbert Lenin Castillo.
Whether that powerful blow will be enough to halt Beterbiev will be discovered when they take to the ring on Saturday night in Quebec, live on ESPN+ and Sky Sports. In this list you will find a huge variety of online casinos all reviewed by the experts.