Smith retained his British super-lightweight title with a magnificent seventh round knockout of Sam Maxwell at the Utilita Arena. Making the most of a lapse in Maxwell’s defence, Smith wiped him out with a right-hander. With the victory, earned a via a dominant performance and despite having cuts over both eyes, he also takes Maxwell’s Commonwealth title and enhances his ambitions to bring a world title fight to Hillsborough, the home of his beloved Sheffield Wednesday, sometime next year. The 26-year-old extends his record to 15-0 (win-loss) and gets to keep the Lonsdale belt for winning three British title fights. Smith said: “It was the first time I’ve had a cut and felt the blood pouring. And I thought ‘this is why I’m a warrior and this is what I’m made for’. “But I smelt blood and thought ‘this is where I turn it up’. I needed critics asking me if I was that good and I needed Sam to bring this out of me. “In my career I want to become a world champion but I made a bit of history in my city to win the British title outright.” Smith’s promoter at Matchroom Sports, Eddie Hearn, beamed: “In this sport people always want to question you. He has produced a knockout that will go viral around the world and will put the division on notice. “That was the sort of performance and knockout that makes a statement.” Elsewhere on the Sheffield card, Leeds fighter Hopey Price marked his featherweight debut with a seventh-round stoppage of James Beech Jr to move to 11-0. And Hull’s Lewis Sylvester moved to 12-0 and took the English title with a split decision verdict over 10 rounds against Lewis Cope. Elsewhere, Briton Savannah Marshall scored a majority decision points win over Franchon Crews-Dezurn to become the undisputed super-middleweight champion in Manchester. The judges scored the fight 95-95, 99-92 and 97-93 as the 32-year-old fighter recovered from a slow start to win out after a fast-paced encounter. A 13th professional win for Marshall means she is now a two-weight champion. Marshall said: “She (Crews-Dezurn) is a tough, tough woman. I thought she came on stronger, some of the rounds were close but I felt landed the better shots. On the undercard, Natasha Jonas beat Kandi Wyatt to win the IBF welterweight title after the referee halted the bout in the eighth round. Canadian fighter Wyatt offered little in response against Jones, who is also now a two-weight world champion and has won 14 of her 17 professional fights. She is also the reigning WBC, WBO and IBF light-middleweight champion.
