Artur Beterbiev is putting the weight of his WBC and IBF light heavyweight championships on the line and Joe Smith Jr. defends his WBO title on June 18. In the Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater, one man is just one step away from declaring himself the undisputed champion.
Beterbiev made his professional debut in 2013 before he won the WBA-NABA light-heavyweight title 2014. He also won the title in 2017. Beterbiev took home his first IBF light-heavyweight title in a fight with Enrico Kolling. Beterbiev has been defending the IBF title five times.
In the year 2019, Beterbiev beat Oleksandr Gvozdyk to claim the WBC light heavyweight title. In his final match, Beterbiev beat Marcus Browne to keep the title. Beterbiev also remained with his undefeated knockout-to win ratio.
Smith made his professional debut at the age of nine in 2009. At the beginning of his professional career, Smith won 11 fights by knockout. In the aftermath of losing his debut fight in 2010 Smith was on an impressive 17-fight winning streak. Smith defeated Bernard Hopkins in 2017 in the event that would be Hopkins his final fight. Smith was defeated by Dmitry Bivol in 2019 for the WBA light heavyweight title. After that, he’s been crowned four times in succession. He defeated Maxim Vlasov for the WBO light heavyweight crown in 2021.
In his last fight during January Smith knocked out Steve Geffrard by TKO to keep the title.
Odds of betting for Artur Beterbiev against. Joe Smith Jr.
As per Vegas Insider, Beterbiev is the huge 700-700 favorite. Smith is the +400 underdog.
In Canada according to the Sports Interaction, Beterbiev is the favorite at -1385, and Smith is the -536 underdog.
Trends in betting for Artur Beterbiev against. Joe Smith Jr.
Betting trends for Beterbiev and. Smith have not been announced as of yet. Keep checking back for more information, because media News will be giving more information as the time progresses.
Artur Beterbiev. Joe Smith Jr. prediction
Do the odds actually provide the full story of the battle with two best light heavyweights in the world today? For all we know, Smith was the +305 underdog in his bout with Jesse Hart and the +180 underdog in his fight against Eleider Alvarez.
Smith is near the bottom of the list with Smith securing a plus/minus score in the range of +-1.6. He has an average of 25.1 percent shots that are connected and his opponents hit 26.7 percent on their attempts. Beterbiev is ranked 27th in active fighters, with a the rating of +/- of +8.6. Beterbiev is hitting 29.7 percentage of shots while his opponents land 21.1 percent.
When will Artur Beterbiev scheduled to meet. Joe Smith Jr.?
Date: Saturday, June 18
Start time: 6 p.m. ET
Main card: 10 p.m. ET
Main event: 11:30 p.m. ET (approximately)
Beterbiev against. Smith takes place on the 18th of June. The prelim fights begin around 6 p.m. ET. The main card starts with the main event at 10 p.m. ET at which point Beterbiev and Smith are expected to make their way to the ring by 11:30 p.m. ET. It will depend of how long fights on the undercard continue.
