QUEBEC CITY — Twenty up and twenty down.
Artur Beterbiev kept his impeccable knockout percentage alive, knocking down and stopping the outmatched Callum Smith in seven rounds on Saturday at the Center Videotron in Quebec City, Canada.
The stoppage time was at 2:00, when Smith’s trainer, Buddy McGirt, came to the ring to end the bloodshed, handing the victory to Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs), while retaining his titles. light heavyweight of the IBF, the WBC and the WBO. Smith (29-2, 21 KOs) suffers his second defeat and the first by knockout.
Beterbiev, 38, of Montreal, Canada, from Khasavyurt, Russia, appeared to be in for a disappointing sparring session, touching Smith, 33, of Liverpool, England, with powerful blows whenever he felt like it. Beterbiev treated the fight, his eighth defense of his 175-pound belts, as if he were slowly de-airing the ball, until a deflated piece of rubber was left on the ground.
HE DOES IT AGAIN.
The light heavyweight man @ABeterbiev 🏆 pic.twitter.com/qXo8zQmzJd
– Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) January 14, 2024
“We had a couple of strategies. We always have more than one. We need to be prepared for several strategies. He gave me a good fight. He stayed strong. Thanks to him. Today, luck is on my side,” said Beterbiev, ranked No. 2 at 175 pounds by The Ring.
Beterbiev got off to a fast start, dominating the much taller Smith in the early stages. Smith, despite standing 6ft 3in, seemed determined to trade blows in close quarters, much to his detriment. Smith had a better second round, but his head seemed to pop up every time he was hit by a jab or a right from Beterbiev.
The fight quickly began to go downhill in the fourth round, when Beterbiev pinned Smith against the ropes and rocked him with body shots and close right hands.
Beterbiev finally put things to rest in the seventh, when a right hand surprised Smith and a subsequent shot left him on the canvas. Smith got up, but from then on he was an easy target, hitting the canvas again to end the fight.
The victory clears the way for Beterbiev to face WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol in a highly anticipated fight for the undisputed championship. Beterbiev’s promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, told ESPN after the fight that Beterbiev, who is Muslim, will be ready to face Bivol three months after Ramadan, which ends in mid-April, setting the schedule for that confrontation in July.
“It’s not done yet. But we absolutely want to do it,” Arum said of Beterbiev-Bivol. “I will be speaking with my friend, His Excellency Turki Alalshikh. I know he wants to do it, but Ramadan is coming up. So, about three months after the end of Ramadan we will be ready to fight Dmitry Bivol, probably in Riyadh. [Saudi Aarabia].”
“Yes, of course,” Beterbiev responded when asked about a fight with Bivol (22-0, 11 KOs). “I need another belt. “It would mean a lot to me.”
The fight was Beterbiev’s first since his eighth-round TKO of Anthony Yarde last January. The Beterbiev-Smith fight was originally scheduled for last August, but was postponed due to a bone infection in Beterbiev’s jaw that required surgery.
Smith, a former Ring Magazine super middleweight champion, had won his previous two fights since his loss to Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez in September 2021.
Ryan Songalia has written for ESPN, New York Daily News, Rappler and The Guardian, and is part of the Craig Newmark School of Journalism Class of 2020. You can contact him at [email protected].
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