Artur Beterbiev and Callum Smith both made the 175 pound weight limit ahead of their clash tomorrow night at the Center Videotron in Quebec City, Canada.
Smith (29-1, 21 KOs) challenges for the IBF, WBC and WBO light heavyweight world titles in Beterbiev’s adopted nation of Canada. Knockout artist Beterbiev (19-0, 19 KOs) has signed to face fellow Russian Dmitry Bivol for the undisputed title in Saudi Arabia, if all goes to plan against Smith.
The bout received some controversy yesterday as it was announced that an “atypical finding” was found in Beterbiev’s VADA test sample form December. However, the raised levels in the test sample last month did not permit VADA to cancel tomorrow’s matchup.
Smith weighed in at 174.6 pounds. Beterbiev hit the scale at 175 pounds exactly, he did not look his best when compared to Smith. The champion looked to have struggled to make the limit. He spent little time showing off own the scales or facing off with Smith.
On the undercard Christian Mbilli (25-0, 21 KOs) takes on Australia’s Rohan Murdock (27-2, 19 KOs) at super middleweight. Murdock weigh in at 167.6 pounds for Murdock with Mbilli coming in at 167.3 pounds.
Jason Moloney defends (26-2, 19 KOs) makes the first defence of his WBO bantamweight world title against Saul Sanchez (20-2, 12 KOs). Sanchez came in at 117.8 pounds with the champion looking comfortable at 117.5. A few mild verbals were exchanged in the face off shortly after.
