Beterbiev and Smith Jr meet for three belts

Artur Beterbiev, who holds the WBC and IBF light heavyweight belts, meets the WBO champion Joe Smith Jr in a unification matchup at the Madison Square Garden Hulu Theatre on Saturday night.

The WBA champion is Dimitri Bivol (110-11; 14), who has just come off an upset win over Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

Despite this unbelievable upset win there are scribes out there who consider Beterbiev (17-0; 17) as the top light heavyweight in the world.

Beterbiev (17-0; 17) from Russia fights out of Montreal, Canada, and had an outstanding amateur career with a record of 96-10.

He won the vacant IBF light heavyweight belt in his 12th fight with a 12th-round knockout win over Enrico Koeling.

The 37-year-old Beterbiev made successful defences of the IBF belt, against Cullum Johnson (ko 4), Radivoje Kalajdzic (ko 5), and Olesandr Gvozdyk (tko 10), and then became the WBC and IBF champion with a tenth-round stoppage win over Adam Deines.

In his most recent fight, he retained both belts with a ninth-round knockout win against Marcus Browne.

Smith (28-3; 22) failed in his first attempt at winning a world title when he was outpointed over 12 rounds by Dmitry Bivol in March 2017.

In April 2021 he won the vacant WBO light heavyweight belt on a 12-round majority points decision over Maxim Vlasav and made a successful defence in January this year against Steve Geffard (ko 9).

Beterbiev is far from a spent force and the 32-year-old Smith has the odds stacked against him.

However, Beterbiev has been vulnerable on occasions and was dropped by England’s Smith before coming back to win on a stoppage.

The champion is a 1/12 favourite on some books, and it is on the cards that he will once again win inside the distance.