WBC and IBF light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev 17-0 (17) know exactly what is on the line when he takes on WBO titleholder Joe Smith Jr 28-3 (22) at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City this Saturday night.
“This is a very important fight for me,” the 37-year-old Russian who boxes out of Quebec, Canada said. “With regard to the place, it’s not different for me. I’m more focused on the fight. I’m more focused on my opponent, not on the place. I always ask my boxing coach and my conditioning coach about how I’m doing. I ask them if it’s less than I was doing two years ago. They tell me that I’m doing better than two years ago.
“If we compare it to the last one, this camp went very well. This camp was better. I want to thank my team, my conditioning coach, my boxing coach, all my team and all my sparring partners who helped me. We had a good camp.
“We are both ready for this fight. I think it’s going to be a good fight. We will see. I can’t predict the future. I’m just a boxer.”
Beterbiev won the vacant IBF strap against Enrico Koelling by 12th round knockout in November 2017. He defended the belt twice before collecting the WBC title from Oleksandr ‘The Nail’ Gvozdyk in October 2019.
Long Islander Smith, 32, became the WBO champ with a majority decision win over Maxim Vlasov in April last year. He has defended once against Steve Geffrard, who he stopped in nine frames in January.
“This is a huge opportunity,” Smith said. “Beterbiev is a huge name in boxing. Everyone knows who he is at this point. He has two world titles, and I want those belts. I believe this fight is going to be great. You’ve got two big punchers and I’m just excited to be in there with him. He’s a great name.
“I’m fighting at the Garden. Home is not too far from here. All my fans are going to be here to support me or, if not, watch at home. I’m just glad to be here defending my WBO title and unifying two other belts.
“I believe this guy is in his prime right now. I don’t think age has anything to do with it. I know he’s here at 100 percent and ready to go. I know I’m here fighting one of the best, so I trained at 110 percent. I made this camp a little longer. I made sure that I improved things that I wasn’t doing at my best. I stayed more consistent with my training, so I feel comfortable about this weekend.
”Promoter Bob Arum is already spruiking the fight as the best of the year and he could be right.
“At my age, this fight brings me back so many decades to when Top Rank promoted the leading light heavyweights in the world like Bob Foster, Matthew Saad Muhammad, John Conteh, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad and Marvin Johnson,” the Matchroom Boxing boss said.
“The light heavyweight division has given people who follow boxing great thrills for as long as I’ve been promoting fights. Now we have this fight, which will go into the annals like all the great light heavyweight fights of the past and may even be the one that is the greatest.
“Joe Smith is a tremendous fighter. He has a big heart. He has a lot of skills and a lot of punching power. And what can I say about Artur Beterbiev? He really epitomizes the ferocity that light heavyweights have been known for. Tremendous puncher. Big heart. A guy who refuses to lose. Nothing can be better than this. I predict that this fight will be considered the Fight of the Year for 2022.”
