Callum Smith defeated Joshua Buatsi in the opening bout of Saturday night’s card, setting himself up to face Dmitry Bivol next.
Callum Smith has now moved to 31-2 after picking up a decision victory over Joshua Buatsi. Buatsi showed great resilience, but the Liverpudlian’s experience proved to be too much, and ‘Mundo’ won a very close fight.
Fans were outraged at one judge’s scorecard for the Smith vs Buatsi bout, which scored it far too widely in Smith’s favour.
Smith has only two losses on his record – Canelo Alvarez and Artur Beterbiev, who he faced in his first attempt at the light heavyweight world titles.
Smith now holds the WBO interim light-heavyweight title and may be the next challenger for Bivol’s crown unless a Beterbiev Bivol trilogy occurs instead.
Callum Smith’s bruised rib cost him the Beterbiev fight
In an interview with iFL TV, Smith’s trainer, Buddy McGirt, told of how Smith was a different fighter leading up to the Buatsi fight.
He said: “In training camp, he just had a whole different new attitude for 2025. His energy levels were different. His frame of mind was different.”
When he was asked what changed from the Beterbiev fight, which saw Smith stopped by the Russian for the first time in his career, McGirt said:
“The fight was postponed twice, as we know, and then when we started training, three and a half weeks before the fight he got a bruised rib. He said ‘Buddy I’m not gonna spar anymore […] I just gotta hit mitts and the heavy bag every day, and then I got to go through with the fight.'”
McGirt concludes that Smith wasn’t himself against Beterbiev, and likely would have put up a better fight if he were.
Smith admitted he was retired following the loss to Beterbiev, but has since bounced back in terrific fashion.
Who else did Buddy McGirt train?
McGirt is currently training the Scouser, and has done since the start of his career at light-heavyweight, when Smith produced a scary knockout over Lenin Castillo, but he has trained a great many more fighters throughout his illustrious career.
McGirt trained Arturo Gatti in his classic fights with Micky Ward, as well as many others in his career. He also presided over Antonio Tarver, who defeated Roy Jones Jr. three times in their own trilogy.
He has also trained Sergey Kovalev, Hasim Rahman and Paulie Malignaggi, and currently works with WBO middleweight champion, Janibek Alimkhanuly, and British heavyweight Dillian Whyte.