Eddie Hearn isn’t sure whether Callum Smith will want to continue his career after Artur Beterbiev became the first fighter to knock him out Saturday night.

Beterbiev brutalized the former WBA super middleweight champion, but his promoter pointed out that the 33-year-old Smith hasn’t absorbed comparable beatings in 11 years as a professional prizefighter. Hearn figures finding motivation might be troublesome for Smith because Beterbiev owns the IBF, WBC and WBO light heavyweight titles and the Russian knockout artist will battle WBA champ Dmitry Bivol later this year in an attempt to become the first fully unified 175-pound champion of the four-belt era.

Having to rebuild himself as a 175-pound contender could be unappealing enough to make Smith retire. His future won’t be addressed, though, until the Liverpool native takes some time off to be with his family following a seventh-round, technical-knockout loss to Beterbiev at Videotron Centre in Quebec City, Canada.

“I don’t know,” Hearn told Boxing Social during a post-fight interview that was posted to its YouTube channel Sunday. “You know, he’s done everything in the sport, really. He’s won world titles. He’s won [The] Ring magazine championships. He’s won British and European titles. You have to ask yourself, like he hasn’t really taken a lot of punishment in his career. That was quite punishing tonight, but still, it’s not like he’s been knocked out, unconscious. And even the Canelo Alvarez fight, he lost it, you know, but he didn’t really take heavy punishment in the fight. That’s his two defeats.

“But what else do you wanna achieve? You wanna try and win a world championship at light heavyweight? They’re tied up. Obviously, you know, you got the [Beterbiev-Bivol] fight, which is gonna take place at some point this year. So, you’re gonna be waiting for a world championship. So, I think he’ll have a rest. And inactivity’s killed him a little bit. He pulled out of a fight in March, Beterbiev pulled out of the fight in [July]. So, you know, he didn’t box in 2023, which was disappointing for him. So, could’ve [had to do] with the activity, but Beterbiev was too good tonight.”

Smith’s only losses came against elite-level fighters in Alvarez and Beterbiev.

Mexico’s Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 KOs) beat him by big margins on all three scorecards in their 12-round, super middleweight title fight three years ago at Alamodome in San Antonio. The 38-year-old Beterbiev beat him up much worse, which devastated Smith (29-2, 21 KOs), who was the mandatory challenger for Beterbiev’s WBC belt.

Smith hadn’t been knocked down as an amateur or as a pro prior to battling Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs). The Montreal-based Beterbiev sent Smith to the canvas twice before Buddy McGirt, Smith’s trainer, entered the ring and instructed referee Mike Griffin to stop their scheduled 12-round, 175-pound championship match.

A demoralized Smith seemed unsure if he’ll continue to fight when he was interviewed by Sky Sports in his locker room.

“It’s one of them I’ve always set the bar very high,” Smith said. “I’ve always wanted to be the best. I’ve always believed I was the best, and now it’s hard to accept that I’m not. And now I’ve got an amazing family at home. I’ve given a lot to boxing. I think win or lose, I didn’t wanna stay in boxing for a long time. But I’m not making any decisions. But I think it’s time to assess the future and see if I’ve got any goal that motivate me to go back to the gym.

“If not, we’ll see. But at the minute I’m gonna go home, spend time with me family. I’ve been a little bit quiet over Christmas. I’ve got two little ones at home, so I know I’ve missed them this week. So, I’m gonna go see them, spend time with me family and then we’ll see what the future holds.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.