Dalton Smith interview: Sheffield's Thunder on Jon Fernandez, Adam Azim and fulfilling his world title ambitions
He would have gone through the same routine as for his last 16 professional bouts; calmness and serenity through the day and then explosive, aggressive punching and deafening noise as he went about extending his unbeaten record in the evening.
Instead he will go to Hillsborough to watch his beloved Sheffield Wednesday (deafening crowd noise debatable) and then make his way to the Canon Medical Arena for a slightly reduced version of the Matchroom bill he should have been top of.
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Hide AdA minor injury sustained by Smith forced the postponement of the fight three weeks ago and a momentary blip on the otherwise steady upward trajectory of the 27-year-old light welterweight, the latest off the Steel City’s never-ending production line of boxing talent.


“I just had a little neck injury which needed a bit of rest, a bit of time,” Smith tells The Yorkshire Post. “It’s frustrating but it’s part and parcel of the sport. It’s something you have to deal with.
“I’ll still be there at the show, we’ve actually got a fighter on from the gym, Brandon Scott, and I’ll be doing a bit of coaching for the night, working in his corner with my Dad.
“It’s a shame I won’t be headlining it but there’s nothing we can do.”
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Hide AdThe injury has been greeted pragmatically. After the diagnosed rest, it wasn’t long before Smith was back in the gym working towards his next fight, a rescheduling of the Fernandez bout for the vacant European super lightweight title that he hopes is made for before the end of the year.


“It would be nice to get out before Christmas and I think that’s a high possibility,” continues Smith, for whom there is no ballooning in weight of falling off a wagon in between fights.
“I’m staying in the gym so hopefully I can get out there again soon and capture that European title.”
Ring-rust was one of the reasons cited by his fellow Yorkshireman Josh Warrington for his defeat to Anthony Cacace at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night that has left the Leeds Warrior questioning how much he has left to give the sport.
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Hide AdIt is a cautionary lesson for Smith as he navigates his way through fights and titles in an attempt to get to the very top like Warrington did – and potentially stay there longer.


“When you get to the level of the 12 championship rounds your fights slow down, you may be out just once or twice a year at that level,” acknowledges Smith.
“If you get injuries you’ve got to account for those. As long as you stay in the gym and you don’t stay out of it for too long, that you’re keeping up with you’re conditioning, you’re keeping up with your sparring then it’s not too bad.
“That’s been important for me. I needed my body to rest but still be doing what I could be doing like sticking with the rehab and living the clean life, keeping your body in a good condition so that when I do need to get back to it that transition is not too hard.
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Hide Ad“Ring rust comes in to play when you’ve been out of the gym for a long time.”


Last Saturday night had an air of a changing of the guard about it.
Anthony Joshua, for a decade a totemic figure at the top of the British and world heavyweight division, cut down to the canvas by the younger Daniel Dubois with Warrington similarly on his knees after a third successive defeat, those epic, brutal fights with Lee Selby and Carl Frampton six long years ago. Smith is one of the younger generation forcing the older guard out.
“You could say that,” he admits. “As they say boxing is a young man’s sport, I don’t think it’ll ever change. Every dog has his day, but that’s just boxing.
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Hide Ad“Sometimes one shot can change the outcome of a fight and that’s the beauty of boxing, especially for the people watching.
“Maybe we’re just in that transition where it’s the end of those legends’ careers and the younger guys like myself are coming through.”
To that end, Smith has reached a stage of his career where even with the minor frustration of being outside the ring tonight instead of in it, he is on the path he marked out for himself five years ago when he turned his back on the amateur game and took his first steps in the paid ranks under the guidance of Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Sports.
“I’m exactly where I wanted to be,” is Smith’s assessment, self-assured without being arrogant. “I’ve said from the start of my career I want my journey to include fighting for all the traditional belts and that’s what I’ve done – English, British, Commonwealth.
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Hide Ad“The next one is the European and after that the only one I need to get is a world title and I don’t think I’m a million miles away from achieving that childhood dream.
“If I stay focused, train hard then I believe it will all happen for me.”
A fight with Slough’s Adam Azim is the one British fight fans want to see. The 22-year-old is five years younger and five unbeaten fights fewer into his career than Smith, but he vacated the European title that the Sheffield fighter is waiting to challenge the Spaniard Fernandez for.
“There’s bigger names, bigger fights out there,” offers Smith. “The Adam Azim fight is one that the British public talk a lot about and if Adam hadn’t vacated the title that fight would have been possible.
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Hide Ad“So that’s potentially a big fight down the line but there’s always the top guys, the world champions, and the names change all the time. There’s always someone coming through as well.
“There’s a potential for loads of big fights in my weight at the 140lbs division, it’s one of the most exciting divisions in world boxing.
“Right now the plan is still to capture that European title against Jon Fernandez, he’s the one that’s next in line, he’s a dangerous opponent and one I need to be fully prepared for. It’ll be a great fight.”
If there is to be a world title fight somewhere in his future, Smith has never been shy in saying Hillsborough, home of his beloved Owls, would be the dream setting for that scenario.
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Hide AdWarrington boxed at Elland Road, Tony Bellew at Goodison Park, even Callum Simpson just this summer boxed at Oakwell. A boxer tapping into the tribal support of a fanbase can be transformative, another lesson from the Warrington career.
“It’s been a lifelong goal for me, especially from the start of my career and I think I’m very close,” says Smith, who is certainly with the right company in Matchroom to make it a reality.
“In the next year to 18 months I think that’s a very high possibility it’s going to happen and every fight I have I’m just that little bit closer to making it happen.
“You can see what boxing can bring, what it can generate. It’s never been done at Hillsborough before, make a little bit of history there, get that stadium packed out and it’ll be a night to remember.”
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Hide AdAcross the city, the boxer whose journey meant more to him than most had his moment at Bramall Lane, but Sheffield United fan Kell Brook fell flat on that occasion, losing his IBF world welterweight title in a pulsating bout with Errol Spence.
As Smith anticipates, the higher you rise in the boxing world, the tougher the challenges and the harder the fall.
After 16 wins in 16 bouts, 12 by way of knockout, he knows his toughest tests are still to come, that there will be times when he has to dig deeper than he has ever had to before, a saying which sparks a memory of watching the Owls come from 4-0 down against Peterborough United 16 months ago to keep their promotion dream alive.
“That was like being in a fight and you’re down because you’ve been knocked down but the fight’s still not over, you’re still in the game,” says Smith.
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Hide Ad“That Wednesday comeback shows that no matter how disheartened you can get, however much people can kick you while you’re down, that while you’re still in the game or you’re still in the fight you might only be a couple of goals or a couple of punches away and the fight or the game is not done until the final whistle of the final bell.
“It’s about that determination to ride the storm and still believe you’ve got every possibility to win.
“Those tests are coming for me. Every fighter has it in their career, every athlete, nothing is plain sailing, you're going to have your good days and your bad days and it’s how you come through those. That’s why we train hard, why we prepare, why we put our bodies through hell so that when those moments arise you’re able to come through them.”