Callum Smith watched with piqued, personal interest when countryman Callum Johnson challenged Artur Beterbiev for the unbeaten Russian’s IBF light heavyweight title five years ago.
Johnson and Smith trained together, including numerous sparring sessions, before Beterbiev beat Johnson by fourth-round knockout at Wintrust Arena in Chicago. They were both trained by Joe Gallagher at that time in England and Smith rooted for Johnson to pull off an upset versus Beterbiev a week after Smith knocked out George Groves in the seventh round to win the WBA world super middleweight title in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The hard-hitting Johnson gave Beterbiev’s handlers and fans a scare when his left hook dropped the heavily favored knockout artist early in their firefight. Beterbiev stumbled into the ropes once he got up with 1:20 to go in the second round, but he recovered relatively quickly, regained control of their fight and eventually sent Johnson to the canvas with a short right hand that knocked him out late in the fourth round.
As disappointed as he was for Johnson, Smith’s memory of that second-round sequence and the knockdown Beterbiev suffered late in the first round of a prior appearance against Jeff Page Jr. have instilled confidence in Smith entering his own showdown with Beterbiev. The Montreal-based Beterbiev (19-0, 19 KOs) is listed by most sportsbooks as more than a 4-1 favorite over Smith (29-1, 21 KOs), but the strong underdog thinks he’ll encounter a very beatable Beterbiev in a 12-round main event ESPN will televise from Videotron Centre in Quebec City, Canada (10 p.m. ET).
“Yeah, I know how good he is,” Smith told BoxingScene.com, “but I never watched him and believed, ‘How would he lose?’ Or, ‘It’s gonna take a special fighter to beat him.’ I’ve seen him hurt, he does lose rounds. A lot of fights he’s won – I believe the Gvozdyk fight he was down on the scorecards. I believe in the Yarde fight he may have been down or it was close. It’s not like he’s a Floyd Mayweather, who whitewashes people. He’s there to be hit and I plan on hitting him and taking advantage of it.”
The 33-year-old Smith considers himself a fresher fighter and a harder puncher in the 175-pound division. He feels he’ll knock out Beterbiev because of the vulnerabilities that the IBF, WBC and WBO light heavyweight champion has always shown, not because Beterbiev is a week shy of his 39th birthday.
“I don’t really see slippage,” Smith said. “I’d say he’s always had the same not so much faults, but vulnerabilities. He’s been put over twice as a professional. You can’t say that was because of ‘Father Time.’ I think he was in his early 30s when he fought Callum Johnson and Page. I just think he’s very good, very powerful. He’s got good, probably underrated boxing ability, but he’s not the most elusive fighter. He can be hit and, like I said, he can be hurt as well.
“So, I think his faults now are what he’s always had. I don’t think he’s aged much. I think it’s just his style of fighting, he’s always overpowered whoever he’s fought and been able to get away with getting hit because, as I say, he hits them harder. But I’ve always just watched him and seen, stylistically, gaps that I feel like I can take advantage of. And we’re here now. All the talking’s done. It’s time to get in and perform and back me words up.”
Liverpool’s Smith realizes, of course, that this is a dangerous fight.
While Smith has displayed a granite chin during his 11-year, 30-fight professional career, Beterbiev’s concussive power, recuperative powers and underrated boxing ability have convinced Smith that the 2012 Olympian is the toughest opponent of his career. That includes Canelo Alvarez, who decisively defeated Smith on points in their 12-round, 168-pound championship bout in December 2020 at Alamodome in San Antonio.
Beterbiev’s comeback against Johnson came nearly four years after he got up from the abovementioned knockdown against Page to drop the powerful prospect three times in the second round. Beterbiev beat Page, who entered the ring 15-0 (10 KOs), by second-round knockout in December 2014 at shuttered Pepsi Coliseum in Quebec City.
“Obviously, look, he done very well to get back up [against Johnson] and I think he stopped Callum in the next round or whatever,” Smith said. “You’ve gotta give him credit for that, but he did get put over. It was a good left hook, but it wasn’t the biggest of shots and he was hurt when he got up. He stumbled into the ropes a little bit, so I see people like to build this invincible monster up. And don’t tell me he’s invincible when he was put over twice within how many ever fights.
“A lot of people in the media, the critics, it’s like Andre Ward was dropped early in his career and had to live with the tag that maybe he was a little bit susceptible to the chin, where Beterbiev gets dropped twice and it’s kinda forgot about, how he’s this invincible monster. He may be a monster, he’s knocked everyone out, but he’s not invincible.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.