Smith’s world title shot at Beterbiev cancelled

Callum Smith (left) beat Mathieu Bauderlique on the undercard of Oleksandr Usyk’s rematch with Anthony Joshua in JeddahBriton Callum Smith’s title fight against WBC, WBO and IBF light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev in Quebec on 19 August has been cancelled.Unbeaten Canadian Beterbiev, 38, has had jaw surgery.Smith, 33, stepped up to light heavyweight after losing his WBA super-middleweight title to Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in December 2020.He set up the shot at Beterbiev by winning a title eliminator against Mathieu Bauderlique last August.Russia-born Beterbiev is unbeaten after 19 fights and is the only world champion with a 100% knockout ratio.Smith’s loss to Mexican Alvarez is the only defeat of his professional career.Wins at light-heavyweight over Lenin Castillo and Bauderlique took his record to 29-1.

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