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\u201cCallum will rise to the occasion for this fight against Bivol, without a doubt,\u201d McGirt told The Ring<\/a>. \u201cCallum will beat Bivol with what he\u2019s capable of. Bivol can fight, but it\u2019s what Callum can do\u2026 he\u2019s long, rangy and can catch Bivol when he\u2019s bouncing in and out. Callum just has to be ready to fire.\u201d<\/p>\n McGirt also believes Bivol\u2019s performances are often dictated by the level of opposition he faces.<\/p>\n \u201cBivol fights to the capacity of his opponent,\u201d McGirt said. \u201cIf his opponent\u2019s good, you\u2019re gonna get the best. If the opponent is mediocre, you\u2019re going to get a mediocre performance. Bivol does just enough to win against mediocre guys. When the opponent is a star, he rises to the occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith (31-2, 22 KOs) has not fought since defeating Joshua Buatsi in February 2025 to capture the WBO interim light heavyweight title. He was scheduled to face David Morrell in April but withdrew because of an injury.<\/p>\n Bivol (25-1, 12 KOs) returned from back surgery in May with a one-sided 12-round decision victory over IBF mandatory challenger Michael Eifert. The win followed his split series with Artur Beterbiev, with each fighter earning a majority decision victory in their two championship bouts.<\/p>\n Asked what Smith\u2019s strategy would be against Bivol, McGirt declined to reveal any details.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an ancient Chinese secret,\u201d McGirt said with a laugh.<\/p>\n Michael Collins is a senior writer at Boxing247.com (East Side Boxing) and has covered world championship boxing since 2012. Respected for his measured reporting and technical insight, he delivers expert analysis on elite fighters, contenders, and the evolving global fight landscape.<\/p>\n Click here to subscribe to our FREE newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n Latest Boxing News:<\/p>\n \t\t\tTags Callum Smith<\/a>, Dmitry Bivol<\/a> \t\t<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Boxing<\/a> \u2022 Boxing News<\/a> \u2022 McGirt Says Callum Smith Has the Style to Beat Dmitry Bivol<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Last Updated on 2026\/07\/13 at 1:29 PM \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hall of Fame trainer Buddy McGirt believes Callum Smith has both the style and physical tools to defeat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-690463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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