Carl Froch says Callum Smith’s attempts at bravery were futile against “monster” Artur Beterbiev last Saturday night, because of the way he was “beaten to the ground” by IBF light heavyweight champion CMB and OMB in Quebec City.
Froch believes Smith (29-2, 21 KOs) was ill-advised in accepting this fight with the undefeated Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) after an 18-month layoff and two easy fights before that at 175.
He feels he should have used Anthony Yarde as an adjustment after that type of layoff because he wasn’t prepared to face a devastating machine like Beterbiev, who is compared to a young Gennadiy Golovkin for the way he is able to generate enormous power in what look like blows on the arm.
Drunk with dazed courage
Froch says the way Smith tried to keep fighting despite being knocked down was completely futile. He was trying to time Beterbiev with one of his left hooks, but missed badly and was hit with short punches from the powerful Russian.
After the second knockdown in the seventh, Smith still wanted to keep fighting, but his trainer, Buddy McGirt, saved his life by climbing the ropes to alert the referee to stop the fight.
Is it Hearn’s fault?
Froch questions why Smith decided to take this fight after that layoff. Why did he do it? The money might have been too good for Smith to resist, and perhaps all the cheerleading done by his facilitator, Eddie Hearn, might have given him the false belief that he could get the job done against Beterbiev. This was Hearn’s baby.
The way Hearn was talking during the build-up, it was a foregone conclusion that Smith would knock out Beterbiev with a left hook to counterattack, and Callum was naïve enough to drink the Kool-aid and dive straight into this nightmare.
Now, Smith is talking about retiring, and that never would have happened if he had vetoed the video of the Beterbiev fight and followed Froch’s more conservative advice of facing a lesser threat, like Yarde.
The Beast of Beterbiev
“I thought the referee was about to dismiss him. Smith had fallen quite hard. he had gone down [the second time]. He went down and didn’t decide to go down,” Carl Froch told talkSPORT Boxing, speaking of Callum Smith’s seventh-round knockout loss to Artur Beterbiev.
“They punched him to the ground and then he stood up and showed a lot of bravery. He was seriously injured and continued on. He was still looking for that counterpunch, the left hook. He was trying to time it, trying to catch Beterbiev as he unloaded.
“His attempts to try to stay in the fight were futile because he was just losing muscle and switching with hard punches,” Froch said of the way Beterbiev was punching Smith in the seventh round Saturday night.
“You could see that they were hurtful blows. When he went down the second time, I thought the referee could have ruled it out a second time, but he didn’t. He started counting. Smith, I thought I would have beaten the count. He would have jumped off the mat, but Buddy McGirt climbed the ropes and I think the referee saw it.
“Who advises you to accept this fight after an eighteen-month layoff? I think he should have fought Anthony Yarde or someone like that as a stepping stone before jumping into such a big fight at light heavyweight.
“He’s like a monster,” Froch said of Beterbiev. “He’s a bit like GGG in his prime when he would throw punches that looked like punches to the arm but had massive effects on his opponent. You think, ‘What is he hitting him with?'” Froch said.
