Artur Beterbiev vs Callum Smith expert fight analysis

Artur Beterbiev vs Callum Smith fight breakdown

By Global Boxing News13 Jan 2024 · Updated 7h ago · 5 min read

Artur Beterbiev vs Callum Smith fight breakdown

GBN's Canadian reporter, Dave Darling, breaks down the Beterbiev-Smith fight

Dave Darling has an extensive background in boxing writing and breaking down fights, and here is his expert take on tonight’s colossal unified light-heavyweight clash between defending champion Artur Beterbiev and challenger Callum Smith in Canada.

"Since Artur Beterbiev is the betting favorite and very familiar to me, I will focus on his strengths and weaknesses, and explore exactly what Callum Smith will have to do to exploit the champion and win the night."

ARTUR BETERBIEV

STRENGTHS

1 - SOLID TECHNIQUE AND MECHANICS

The champ possesses almost freakish punching power with both hands and it goes way beyond simple mechanics and strength. You see he doesn’t telegraph his punches as the majority of his offence carries little to no advanced warning at all - In other words he doesn’t drop or pull back his hands or even counter-rotate his upper-body to any obvious extent before punching and this makes it much more difficult for his opponents to see the shots coming. And in addition to this “element of surprise” his punches also don’t have to travel as far to strike their target making everything incredibly compact and even more effective. Finally short, compact punches also require less effort to throw allowing Artur to conserve his energy throughout the contest and outlast his opponents.

2 - EXCELLENT PEDIGREE

An early start (9 years old), hundreds of amateur fights, 2 trips to the Olympics and an amateur “world-championship” puts him in very elite company as far as overall experience is concerned.

3 - FOCUSED DEDICATION

Clean living, highly motivated and consistently hard working this young man is like a machine in the gym. In fact his coaches all seem to agree that they’ve never seen anything quite like him. He leads by example and “brings it” everyday.

4 - RISES TO THE CHALLENGE

Artur is one of those special athletes that knows how to handle pressure . . . the bigger the event . . . the more on the line . . . the better he performs. It’s not as if he ignores the pressure, he actually thrives on it.

5 - A WORLD-CLASS TEAM

Marc Ramsey, John Scully, Andre Kulesza and the rest of his trainers are all top-drawer talent with decades of experience in the sweet-science.

6 - GRACE UNDER PRESSURE

Artur has also demonstrated that he can handle adversity in the ring and rise above it - Just watch the fight with Marcus Browne and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

7 - CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT

Every time he enters the ring he brings a new skill to the table. During his relatively short pro career I’ve watched the development of a left-hook (body / head), uppercuts with both hands, lead rights as well as improved movement, distancing and angles. He’s a great student of the game, never stops learning and often likes to say “If I work hard, maybe one day I will be good boxer”

WEAKNESSES

1 – ELEVATED CHIN

Chin a little high at a times during exchanges and is sometimes vulnerable to counter-shots, but has shown improvement in this area of his game in recent fights

2 – RECKLESS AGGRESSION

Sometimes guilty of standing in “the pocket” a little too long and needlessly putting himself at risk of being hit. This is actually quite common among heavy handed fighters who have such belief in their power that they often overlook the inherent danger of the counter-punch.

CALLUM’S KEYS TO VICTORY

So (as previously mentioned) the question really boils-down to how Smith can exploit the champ’s weaknesses and leave Canada with some new belts. Now I don’t pretend to know anywhere near as much about the challenger in this case, but I’ve watched some tape, and along with the obvious height and reach advantage, I’ve picked out a couple of other keys to victory

1 - COUNTER-LEFT-HOOK

While blessed with power across the board the most devastating punch that I’ve seen from Smith is that quick, sneaky, compact and powerful left-hook counter. Usually thrown from relatively close-range and after his opponent lands a right-hand to the head this punch often finds the chin in a “big way” - In fact I’ve seen him finish several opponents in this fashion and it really seems to be his best weapon to date. So if he can counter Artur’s right and land that hook on an “elevated chin” he may have a chance to hurt the champ and put him on his back. Personally I don’t think that Smith will have much success with this punch, because it represents such a “clear and present danger” that the champ will have trained specifically to stay away from it. Watch for Beterbiev to throw a “shadow right” to the head while quickly leaning back in order to evade the left-hook and then coming back with another lead right to Smith’s unprotected head. This is pretty advanced stuff (think Robinson, Ali, Mayweather) that takes impeccable timing, balance and weight transfer, but he did against Yarde and it represents yet another tool in his kit

Playing “the bull and the matador” also represents an opportunity for Smith to win the night if he can effectively out-box Beterbiev to a victory on points. Taller, rangier and with a significant reach advantage the Brit could turn Artur’s aggression against him and use continual movement to pile up the points and frustrate the champ. Unfortunately for the challenger he doesn’t fight well enough on the back foot - Just watch the Canelo fight and it’s pretty clear that while Callum can certainly move well in all directions he can NOT land effectively while moving backward – In addition he seemed to be intimidated by Canelo throughout most of the exchanges and at times almost appeared to “running”. So if a similar scenario plays out tonight with Beterbiev “stalking” and Smith “retreating” the titles are probably staying on the west side of the pond.