“He’s getting weaker, Joe. I can feel him getting weaker.”

Callum Johnson was on the verge of a terrific upset. The heavy-handed former light heavyweight, from Boston, England, had tasted the canvas in round one, but had dropped brilliant Russian Artur Beterbiev in stunning fashion with a second round left hook.

Buoyed, Johnson went back to his corner and saw trainer Joe Gallagher between rounds.

Undefeated in some 20 fights at the time, Johnson believed he might just have the Russian where he wanted him.

“I felt like when I was in there, I genuinely thought I was going to get him. I felt him getting weaker and I was saying to Joe, ‘I’m gonna get him, Joe. I’m gonna get him.’” 

Callum, now campaigning at cruiserweight, pauses for further thought – and possibly for effect.

“Then he got me.” 

Ultimately, Johnson could not stop the collision course that is Saturday’s enticing meeting between the two top light heavyweights of this generation, Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.

He was stopped by Beterbiev in the fourth of their shootout at the Turning Stone Casino in upstate New York and now, likely watching Saturday’s main event with friends or family from a couch in Boston, he will be an interested observer rather than aggressive participant.

“Yeah, I am looking forward to it,” Johnson admitted, on his way to a training session. “I have the same opinion as everyone else. It’s the best fight in boxing. I personally fancy Beterbiev, it’s obviously 50/50 and down the middle, looking at what people think, it’s very 50/50. I’m favoring Beterbiev and I’m asking myself, is that a biased pick or not? I don’t think it is. And I do think if the fight was two or three years ago, I don’t think I’d have any doubt. But obviously age and the fact that he’s coming off that knee surgery and everything else, at some point it will catch up with him. But will it be this time? I don’t know. I still think he’ll have enough to win.”

The torn meniscus in Beterbiev’s knee that caused the postponement of the fight in June is a talking point. So is Beterbiev’s inactivity. He is also nearly 40. Factor in Bivol’s qualities on top, and that leaves plenty of unanswered questions.

“People talk about Bivol moving better and everything else and it [the movement] is very good, it’s unbelievable,” Johnson continued. “It’s probably the best out there by any fighter, but I think Beterbiev will deal with it because he’s not got any height [disadvantages to deal with], they’re the same kind of height, he hasn’t got the reach disadvantage so it’s just the movement and I know when you look at him when he fought [Oleksandr] Usyk – and I know that’s in the amateurs – but he deals with that movement. It’s not like it’s something he’s never seen before, so I just think he’ll have enough to deal with it.”

Asked to recall the evening he shared a ring with the Russian who is now 20-0 (20 KOs), in October 2018, Johnson did not feel as though he was in there with someone who could potentially be heralded as a great. Johnson, a decorated amateur and fierce punching contender in his own right, did not believe he was out of his depth – until he was suddenly underwater and drowned.

“People ask me this all the time and it’s weird because when I was in there I didn’t feel as though it was anything crazy. It wasn’t like I was like, ‘Wow, this is crazy,’” he went on. “It didn’t bother me. I wasn’t bothered. Obviously when he hit me, I went down, so that obviously shows how hard he hits. Obviously, we know the first knockdown I wasn’t looking and he kind of hit me and knocked me into next week. I think after that… I can’t really remember too much about the fight anyway after that point. I think I was fighting on instinct anyway.”

A combination of Beterbiev’s blunt fists, time and maybe even the occasion itself means it all seems a little hazy to Johnson now, some six years on, but he is rightly proud of his showing and his significant what if moment.

“Obviously he punches very hard. His record speaks for itself, doesn’t it?” the Englishman added.

“Looking at it now, obviously I got him well and he was on unsteady legs. At the time, I can’t remember too much about it. It’s a blur. It’s one big blur. I remember being in there and I remember hitting him and him going down. I’ve got the visuals of it. I remember walking to the corner. But other than that, it’s a big blur, the whole thing. After that first round knockdown, I don’t think I ever got my senses fully back anyway. I don’t know if I was in Lala Land or deluded or what, but I genuinely, all the way until the end of the fight, thought I was going to get him again. But obviously I never did.”

For some, the walls close in on them as Beterbiev grinds away. It wasn’t like that for Johnson. The finishing sign was in sight, and then Beterbiev crossed the line first and Johnson was left licking his wounds. 

Of that part, Johnson tells it best.

“I remember being in there with Joe [Gallagher] and I remember feeling like he was getting a bit weaker and I remember saying to Joe, ‘He’s getting weaker. I can feel him getting weaker.’ Then he got me, didn’t he? He got me.”