By: Sean Crose
The WBC has ordered an interesting light heavyweight title fight. The Council’s current divisional t king, 19-0 Artur Beterbiev, has been instructed to make a deal with 29-1 former world titlist Callum Smith by April 11th, lest the fight go to purse bid. Beterbiev is a wrecking machine, but Smith is no joke. In fact, the only loss suffered by the Englishman was at the gloved hands of Canelo Alvarez back in 2020. Smith was a super middleweight titlist at the time. Since his lone defeat, however, Smith has moved up to light heavyweight and is now poised for a shot at Beterbiev.
It’s hard to imagine Smith coming in the betting favorite here (should the match be made). Beterbiev has stopped every one of his opponents within the distance. Many fans want to see IBF, WBC and WBO titlist Beterbiev square off against WBA titlist – and Canelo Alvarez conqueror – Dmitry Bivol. That potential fight, however, has yet to come through to fruition. With Beterbiev now ordered to face Smith, a potential match with Bivol will likely be pushed to some point further down the road. Beterbiev will want to face Bivol for the undisputed heavyweight championship, after all, and he won’t be able to do that if the WBC strips him of his belt for refusing to face Smith.