Artur Beterbiev came into this fight with the reputation of a monster puncher, maybe the hardest in boxing full stop (full stop, not pound-for-pound). He came out with that reputation intact and, if anything, enhanced. There was just something about seeing him absolutely brutalize someone as much bigger than him as Callum Smith is — and to do so mostly without seeming to actually try to put much torque on his punches.
Beyond the physicality though, it was was also a sharp, technical performance in which the champion showed both extremely good timing and punch selection and smart defensive instincts, keeping himself safe against the counter threat of Smith. Let’s take a look.
The Breakdown: How Artur Beterbiev took over against Callum Smith
Perhaps the biggest problem Smith had here was that, on top of just being brilliant and hard-punching, Artur Beterbiev was just a bad style matchup for him. Some observers (Tim Bradley, notably) were confused as to why Smith wasn’t using his length and jab to just stay at range, and kept letting Beterbiev push him to the ropes. The reason is pretty simple — that’s just not his game. Yes, he does jab a lot, but the only time he’s ever really used it to control a fight purely from range is against the kickboxer Nieky Holzken.
Other than that, what he is and always has been is a mid- and close-range puncher, either using his jab and sheer size to push opponents back before working around their guard with his length, or baiting them to come in and press him before countering them, often with a left hook upstairs that’s become his signature punch.
So, three issues with that: first, Beterbiev’s timing is better than Smith’s, and that made it difficult to either bait him with anything or stay safe in the moments where he did manage to get on the front foot. Second, while he showed improvements in his defense when on the ropes — a lot more head movement than he’d previously shown — it still wasn’t deep enough to stay safe and then find counters with any consistency. Third, while a signature punch is a nice thing to have, an opponent will know you’re going to try it. If the timing is already against you, it’s hard to land it if that’s what you’re pinning your hopes on.
And perhaps a fourth and final issue is that even if you do everything successfully, Beterbiev hits so damn hard that even shots you’ve successfully and cleanly caught on your guard will hurt and move you. And not just the loaded up ones- as mentioned above, even his seeming arm-punches hurt you. The guy who beats him isn’t likely to be a pocket boxer- he’s just too overwhelming. So Smith had his work cut out.
The first four rounds saw the fight go pretty much as anticipated- Beterbiev with the volume, and putting the pressure on, breaking Smith’s guard apart. There were moments when Smith would get his jab going briefly and push forward, but that almost always ended with him eating a counter himself — usually over his left hand but sometimes to the body — and backing up.
One notable aspect here was Beterbiev’s footwork, which was a lot cleaner than it has been in the past. He’s always been good positionally, but as recently as the Joe Smith Jr. win in 2022 it was often messy, leaving him off-balance or needlessly squared up. It was not only a lot cleaner here, leaving him less vulnerable to Smith’s counter attempts, but his deceptiveness with it has become more convincing, foot feints and little angle switches allowing him to time Smith even more effectively than he already was.
In the fourth, he hurt Smith badly, and saw an opening to finish. He poured the punches on for a solid 20 seconds, but Smith still had his head clear, and landed a solid left hand counter towards the end of the exchange. It wasn’t in any danger of knocking Beterbiev out, but you could tell he felt it, because he stepped off pretty much immediately after, with the rest of the round spent on the front foot, but more or less just jabbing.
Then, in round five and six, he switched up the tactic, still probing forwards at times but also pausing, stepping off, and baiting Smith to come at him instead. When he did, he’d look to counter. He was particularly successful answering Smith’s jab- normally, working other punches off the jab is laudable, but Beterbiev’s advantage in timing was such that he was regularly able to beat Smith to the follow-up, and Smith never adjusted to just jab and then retract it and stay safe.
That led to those two rounds looking a lot closer, with Smith having an argument to win either (BE gave him five, two of the judges gave him six), but it also took away any chance Smith had of landing that big counter he was hoping for, and also as we’ll see in a second led directly to the finish.
The Finish: How Artur Beterbiev knocked out Callum Smith
In the end, it was the counter that did it. Smith jabbed low, then tried to hook upstairs with the same hand. Artur Beterbiev beat him to it, clubbing him with a right hand as he loaded the hook up. Because he’d been leaning in to generate the power, he wasn’t set to ride the shot, and staggered, clearly hurt.
After that it was more or less academic- Beterbiev at that point decided that it was safe to pour it on. Smith still tried to weave and fight off the ropes, but he was too buzzed to do so properly, and ended up clubbed to the floor. He beat the count and tried again, but he wasn’t recovered, and when he dropped again, his coach stepped in to stop it.
The Future: What do Artur Beterbiev and Callum Smith do next
For Artur Beterbiev, there’s one fight and one fight only that he wants. Dmitry Bivol holds the last belt at light heavyweight, and the unification is the fight that really should happen. Bivol claims he’s already signed on to a fight in Spring in Saudi Arabia, but what that means when Beterbiev hasn’t signed is open to question.
It’s also unclear if all the belts would be on the line, as the WBC’s ridiculous president Mauricio Sulemain has refused to allow Russians to fight for WBC belts in light of the war in Ukraine. Beterbiev is fine, because he is of course Canadian, but since despite living in the US for years now Bivol hasn’t taken citizenship, Beterbiev may have to drop that belt to take the fight. You’d hope that isn’t an impediment- it’s still the clear number 1 and 2 fighting. Or the Saudi funding may make Sulemain change his mind.
On Smith’s part, in an interview after the fight he hinted at possible retirement. Assuming he doesn’t, though, there’s a lot of potentially lucrative options for him against British opponents. A fight against either Anthony Yarde, or the winner of the upcoming showdown between Dan Azeez and Joshua Buatsi (look out for that on February 3rd), would be a worthwhile event. Either option would need rival promoters to work together, but since Smith fought this fight off DAZN (Matchroom’s current broadcaster), and previously fought the WBSS tournament on DAZN when Matchroom were with Sky, he’s clearly more willing than some to get Eddie Hearn to let him cross the street.
One thing he can be sure of though- he won’t be facing a problem like Artur Beterbiev any time soon. With the champion turning 39 in a week, let’s enjoy him while we have him.
