Purse bids for WBC’s ordered championship bout between Artur Beterbiev and Callum Smith have passed and reached a resolution; Top Rank — who represents Beterbiev — has won yesterday’s purse bids by just $15.000 more as opposed to Matchroom’s — who represents Smith — own bid of $2.100.000. The purse bids were officially held on Tuesday, May 2nd, after both promoters failed to reach a deal for their fighters by April 11th.
By winning the purse bids that occurred yesterday, Top Rank is now set to promote the mandated title match between Artur Beterbiev (19-0, 19 KO’s) and Callum Smith (29-1, 21 KO’s), with the former set to defend three of his titles — including the WBC belt — against the latter at a yet-to-be-determined venue and date. As winning promotion Top Rank is based in the USA, the fight is very likely to be staged in the same country depending on the availability of venues within the schedule set by the WBC for the fight to take place.
Though this all virtually means the fight can happen in the near future, both teams will still have some work to do when it comes to finalizing their contracts, and Top Rank will need to sort out a date and venue as soon as possible. Once everything has been sorted, the fighters will enter training camp for a fight date that is likely set to occur in either August or September. Additionally, the undoubted primary broadcaster for this fight will be ESPN once all the match details have been finalized.
Unified Light-Heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev will fight the second British opponent in a row in Callum Smith, if their fight materializes, after defeating Anthony Yarde (23-3, 22 KO’s) earlier this year in January. Though quite aged compared to the other contemporaries within the division, Beterbiev has maintained an unfathomable KO streak throughout all his last nineteen fights, and with all three of his titles (WBC, WBO and IBF) at stake for the fight once again, the Russian-Canadian will need to be at his very best against arguably the best contender he’s faced so far.
Callum Smith, who quickly moved up to 175 lbs following his UD defeat to Canelo Alvarez (58-2-2, 39 KO’s), has been making waves in the division with his own streak of knockouts/stoppages against other Light-Heavyweight contenders. He too, will likely face his toughest opponent in the still-unbeaten Artur Beterbiev whose 100% knockout ratio suggests who is clearly favored — despite the 5-year difference between the two (with Beterbiev being 38-years old as opposed to Callum’s 33 years of age).
As announced by the WBC, the winner of this potential bout will walk away with a 10% bonus of Top Rank’s bid of $2.115.000 — as an incentive for the fighter. Another incentive for the winning fighter might be a unification bout with WBA Light-Heavyweight world champion Dmitry Bivol for the chance to become undisputed.
