SATURDAY night sees two world title defences take place on opposite sides of the Atlantic. 

In Liverpool at the M&S Bank Arena, Callum Smith puts his WBA world, WBC diamond and Ring Magazine super-middleweight titles on the line against John Ryder in a mandatory defence, while at the MGM in Las Vegas, the self-styled Bronze Bomber, Deontay Wilder, risks his WBC heavyweight title in a rematch with Cuba’s formidable Luis Ortiz.

For Smith, who cemented his status as an elite-level fighter with his clinical demolition of George Groves in the final of the World Boxing Super Series super-middleweight tournament in Saudi Arabia just over a year ago, victory over Ryder will set up the likely prospect of a massive legacy fight at his beloved Anfield next year against the likes of Canelo Alvarez, Gennady Golovkin or perhaps even Britain’s Billy Joe Saunders in what would be a classic domestic clash.

No matter who he fights at Anfield next year, assuming he comes through against Ryder tomorrow night, Callum Smith is a fighter who’s matured to the point where it’s hard to see how any of his current rivals at super-middleweight come close to defeating him. His range, leverage, punch selection, power and timing knit together to forge a devastating package. 

Even more impressive is how he approaches his work — seriously and with the temperament of a man for whom boxing is a business in which celebrity and hype are interlopers. He never looks less than poised and in full control of his emotions no matter the magnitude of the occasion, and you imagine that his idea of a night out is a five-mile hill run.

One of the less remarked upon aspects of Smith’s career, but also one of the most beneficial where he’s concerned, is the bond he enjoys with his fighting brothers, Stephen, Paul and Liam, who have themselves operated at European and world level. 

The support they’ve given one another throughout their respective careers, and the way they’ve all helped to guide Callum, the youngest, to where he stands now at the pinnacle of his, is a tribute to the concept of the working-class family as an impregnable fortress rather than a sinking ship. 

It’s a throwback to a time when solidarity was not a word on a leaflet but the non-negotiable fulcrum of working class existence.

In Islington’s John Ryder, Smith faces an opponent who’s been making a habit of crashing through the walls of seemingly impregnable fortresses of late. 

After losing to Rocky Fielding in 2017, he’s bounced back with four back-to-back victories, all by KO, forcing himself into the position where he now stands on the verge of upsetting the bookies and walking through the golden door of world title defences and the financial rewards that come with them.

Smith, justifiably the clear favourite going in, certainly won’t be taking Ryder lightly. Recently becoming a father for the first time, he said in a recent interview: “If I am still fighting at 35 I will be disappointed. My girl has just made that more of a goal. I managed to become a world champion, now I think over the next few years I can see how good I really am, get the massive fights, fulfil my potential and get out. I have seen one too many fighters stay in that bit too long.”

The 29-year old speaks with the authority of one who’s well aware of boxing’s capacity to transform lives both for the better and the worse. He understands that a professional boxing career is akin to the continual rolling of a dice in a casino, one that he’s been rolling since turning pro in 2012. 

But as Callum Smith also clearly understands, there’s no casino in the world that allows even the most skilled and lucky gambler to win forever.

Speaking of casinos, the MGM Grand in Vegas is a place where more fleecing takes place on a daily basis than on your average sheep farm in Australia. 

In its Grand Garden Arena, Deontay Wilder will meet old foe and veteran campaigner Luis Ortiz in the centre of the ring with the contract for his rematch against Tyson Fury in February reportedly already signed and sealed. 

Thus, in taking on an opponent who wobbled him in their first encounter, he’s playing with fire and navigating a banana skin at the same time.

Wilder is one of boxing’s enigmas. The laws of biomechanics dictate that a man with limbs as skinny as his should struggle to generate enough power to knock dust off a shelf, never mind achieve a higher knockout ratio of perhaps any fighter in the history of the sport. 

The only opponent who’s managed to come through a fight against Wilder without succumbing to sleeping gas is the aforementioned Tyson Fury. 

And even then it was only by dint of a Lazarus-like rising off the canvas in the last round that he managed to end the fight vertical rather than horizontal.

Wilder is in one sense a heavyweight version of Tommy Hearns, another world champion who consistently defied the laws of biomechanics when it came to the thunderous power generated by a physique that bespoke the “before” picture in a Charles Atlas bodybuilding course.

But this is where the comparison between Wilder and Hearns ends. On the level of technical ability, Hearns was a polished diamond while Wilder is a piece of coal. The latter does things under the lights in a boxing ring in Las Vegas that a rank novice would be excoriated for under a leaking roof in a boxing gym in Greenock.

And yet despite this Deontay Wilder currently reigns supreme alongside Andy Ruiz Jnr at the apex of a stacked heavyweight division. 

His singular focus is what really sets him apart, and is quite frightening in its intensity. He brings unquenchable determination and ferocity to every fight, and walks and talks like a man who is king in his own kingdom. 

Ortiz enters proceedings knowing that he’s already hurt Wilder and no doubt will believe that he can do so again. But nonetheless, at 40 his biggest opponent tomorrow night will be Father Time.