Artur Beterbiev against Callum Smith: who actually has the….
Artur Beterbiev against Callum Smith: who actually has the ultimate stand…
Artur Beterbiev (19-0-0, 19 KOs) is one of boxing’s must-see attractions, a ring-stalking aggressor and arguably the hardest puncher in boxing today. He’s deceptively skilled, too, with a huge variety to his attacking arsenal. He displays an ability to switch up his game too, as in his last win, a year ago over Anthony Yarde where he responded to adversity by tricking Yarde into the corners.
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The dream opponent for him is fellow light-heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol, but in the absence of that, Callum Smith (29-1-0, 21 KOs) is a worthwhile replacement. Having previously campaigned at super-middleweight, he’s still huge (6 foot 3, and not skinny) at light-heavy, and although his career has had its downsides (a woeful performance against Canelo Alvarez and a dodgy scorecard win against John Ryder), he’s a generally solid technician. He also has one crucial weapon – a wonderful counter left hook that regularly puts aggressive fighters on the floor. He’s nowhere near favourite and shouldn’t be, but he has chances here.
It should be noted, just because it’s part of the story coming in, that Eddie Hearn has been raising ‘concerns’ over an ‘atypical’ finding in one of Beterbiev’s drug tests last year, but since he didn’t actually fail said test there’s not really much to be said about it at the moment.
The undercard is topped by another world title fight, as Jason Moloney defends his WBO belt against Saul Sanchez, and also features the exciting super-middleweight Christian Mbilli against Rohan Murdock.
The main card airs on ESPN and ESPN+ starting at 10PM ET (3AM Sunday for Smith’s British fans), with a lengthy prelim card starting at 5:30PM (10:30 PM Saturday in Britain). You can expect the main event ringwalks around 11PM or 12AM ET, so keep an eye out here for updates on that time.