Crunch time for Smith in a crisp encounter with KO King Artur Beterbiev

Unified Light Heavyweight Champion Artur Beterbiev will defend his crown against Callum Smith at the Videotron Center in Quebec City, Canada.

Montreal resident Artur Beterbiev, World Boxing Council/WBO/IBF unified light heavyweight world champion, will defend his belts against WBC No. 1 contender Callum “Mundo” Smith on Saturday, August 19 at the Videotron Center in Quebec City, Canada.

The August 19 event will be particularly significant for Beterbiev (19-0, 19 KOs), the only boxing world champion with a 100 percent knockout percentage. He brings the power of Excalibur round by round, to the table. He hasn’t fought in Quebec City since 2015 when he defeated Gabriel Campillo.

Beterbiev, a two-time Olympian, has lived in Montreal since he turned pro a decade ago. He has made seven world title defenses since ousting Enrico Koelling for the vacant IBF title in November 2017.

Beterbiev took the WBC belt with an impressive 2019 knockout of Oleksandr Gvozdyk, then added the WBO title to his collection with a blistering second-round performance last year against Joe Smith Jr. He only fought once in Canada as world champion, a ninth-round TKO of Marcus Browne in December 2021. Beterbiev followed Smith’s win with the thrilling eighth-round knockout this January of Anthony Yarde in Yarde’s hometown of London.

Smith (29-1, 21 KOs) is a former super middleweight world champion who has wins over George Groves, Hassan N’Dam and John Ryder. His reign as champion came to an end in December 2019, when he lost a one-sided decision to the pound-for-pound great Canelo Alvarez in a title unification fight.

Beterbiev is doing a thorough preparation guided by his coach Marc Ramsay.
Promoted by Eye of the Tiger and Top Rank, in association with Matchroom Boxing, Beterbiev-Smith in a Joint Feature will air live on ESPN, ESPN Deportes and ESPN+ at 10 p.m. ET/7 p. m. Pt.T.