SMITH GOES FOR WBC GOLD IN MATIAS WORLD TITLE CLASH

Prince Naseem Hamed, Johnny Nelson, Kell Brook, Junior Witter, Clinton Woods, Kid Galahad and Paul Jones…

The Steel City of Sheffield is known for creating world champions and on Saturday night, the exciting undefeated super-lightweight sensation Dalton Smith could add his name to that illustrious list when he faces off with Puerto Rico’s WBC world champion Subriel Matias in New York.

Highly regarded as a future star of the sport even in the amateur ranks, Smith has lit up British boxing since making his professional debut in Nottingham back in 2019.

Eighteen fights, 18 wins and 13 stoppages — Smith has been nothing short of box office, and after claiming the English, British, Commonwealth and European titles, he’s now worked his way into world title contention, which sees him take on one of the most fearsome punchers in the division on away soil.

Relatively unknown before claiming the IBF world title back in 2023, Matias has secured 22 stoppage wins from his 23 victories to date — a man who carries serious power.

He has built up a reputation for relentless pressure and punch output and in his last fight, he picked up the WBC World Super-Lightweight title when dethroning Alberto Puello by unanimous decision.

To the fight now — it’s a bout that’s been marred by controversy in the build-up after it was revealed in November that Matias had tested positive for a banned substance.

Matias’s B-sample also returned an adverse finding, but it was found that the concentration of the substance detected in both samples (0.085 ng/mL) was below the New York State Athletic Commission’s (NYSAC) threshold for punishment.

Controversially, the fight still goes ahead, but it might not be the last we hear of that.

Style-wise, it’s a very similar match-up to Matias’s last defeat, which came against Liam Paro back in 2024.

Dalt can whack, Dalt can box, and Dalt’s ring IQ is significantly better than Matias’s.

However, what Matias does have — which we haven’t seen from Dalton — is the ability to fight at a fast pace for 12 rounds and continue to throw bombs for all 36 minutes.

We’ve never seen Dalton deal with an opponent who can do that, and the result of the fight very much comes down to whether he can handle it.

Dalton’s power, however, cannot be underrated. Matias might be tough, but the Sheffield man most certainly has the power to put a dent in him — especially when Matias is as easy to hit as he is.

If Dalt can deal with the relentless pressure, outbox Matias and hurt him as the rounds go on without gassing, then he’ll be getting his hand raised at the end of the fight.

However, Matias has a lot more experience at this level than Dalton does, and if he can use that to his advantage, he could make it a really tough night at the office for the Englishman.

There’s no doubt the styles will gel and it’ll be a thriller of a fight, so set your alarms for this one.

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