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.