Liverpool's Callum Smith takes on Mathieu Bauderlique in just his second ever light-heavyweight fight this weekend in Saudi Arabia on the Joshua Usyk 2 undercard and says that he is a better fighter than when he was a world champion.
Smith, 32 is the former WBA (Super) and The Ring super-middleweight title holder, having lost both of these and his unbeaten career record to Canelo Alvarez in December 2020 and has moved up a weight division in order to challenge to become a two-time world champion. The winner in this fight will earn a world title shot against Artur Beterbiev.
He takes former Olympic Bronze medallist Bauderlique in the hope that he can earn a shot at the WBC and IBF light-heavyweight titles held by the unbeaten Russian Beterbiev. This fight holds the status as a world heavyweight title eliminator, with the winner becoming the mandatory challenger to Beterbiev's WBC belt.
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Following defeat to Canelo, Smith is now back on the scene at the top of the sport and takes on Frenchman Baderlique hoping that he can continue to bounce back from defeat to Alvarez, who is rated as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of his fight this weekend, the 32-year-old explained how since his 2020 defeat he had reevaluated his career and made changes to improve as well as stepping up a weight class. "Losing kind of highlights areas you feel you need to improve on yourself," Smith explained. "When you're winning, it's so easy to brush them away and you're in a good place because you're winning and you're world champion.
"The loss kind of highlighted certain areas and I made changes to my team and moved over to LA for most of my camp. I certainly believe I'm a better fighter than when I was world champion, and I'm confident I can be another one.
"It's just about being smart and that's what I've been working on; when to throw, when not to throw, when to move and certain positions in the ring.
"I'm always trying to evolve as a fighter and I think too many people get camp mixed up with 'let's get fit and in shape' rather than to improve as a fighter as well."
