Last weekend was a memorable one for Dalton Smith. Whether it was having his hand raised and winning his first world title in New York, hitting the bars with his fans afterwards or walking through Times Square the next morning with his WBC 140lbs belt, Smith won’t be forgetting any of it.
He had walked through the fire to stop Subriel Matias in a thrilling shootout. Asked what the highlight was, Smith smiled: “That first sip of that Guinness in that Irish bar.”
Then, thinking back to what had transpired earlier in the night, he said: “That was achieving a childhood dream and obviously being crowned world champion with my dad [and trainer Grant Smith] there.
“Obviously, the first round, I absolutely boxed his [Matias’] head off and then got into a bit of a tear up. But I was as comfortable as anything in there. And you know what? I was absolutely loving it. And to be honest, I thought as the rounds went on, I could feel him getting weaker and I thought, ‘I'll break you before you break me.’”
That’s what happened. Smith rattled off three huge right hands in the fifth and Matias was sent sprawling. The former champion made it back to his feet, but the fight was waved off. Smith was given credit for beating Matias at what the Puerto Rican puncher does best.
“Exactly,” added the Sheffield man.
“No Mas-Tias, the opposite way. But I’ve always got confidence. People never gave me the credit, my punch power, my strengths. And to sit there and bully the bully, it was a good feeling because the questions I had around my career was, ‘Oh, has Dalton got a chin?’ ‘Is he tough?’ ‘Can he dig deep?’ So I answered every single one of those questions. And then honestly, I had an absolute hell of a fight and I loved every moment of it.”
In recent years, plenty of fight fans stateside have commented that British fighters are overhyped. Smith had heard that, from respected sources, too.
“I’ve seen Tim Bradley saying that,” Smith added. “Tim Bradley put something like, ‘Oh, Dalton’s going to get smashed.”
He was not the only one.
But Smith used that as added motivation.
“Of course, it is a little bit, but in other ways, I’m running my own race [and concentrating only on the fight],” he said. “But like I said, up to that fight, very few gave me credit and thought I was in with a chance in that fight. But I knew that was my fight to prove all these guys, ‘You know, he’s not for anyone, he’s this, that, the other.’ I want to prove every single one of you wrong.”
Smith is now one of the major players at 140lbs. He has the belt and he has the momentum, and it went exactly the way he told himself it would. It doesn’t feel surreal because what happened was what he told himself was going to happen.
“Even all the way through my camp, even the fight, I was very present,” he reflected.
“But as of now, I feel like it still needs to sink in a little bit. And, honestly, I was so calm, the calmest I’ve ever been for any fight. I feel like I just knew. I just knew I was going to prove everyone wrong.”
The Sheffield man, now 19-0 (14 KOs), joined an illustrious list of fighters from the city to win a world title, following the likes of Johnny Nelson, Naseem Hamed and Clinton Woods.
That he was the underdog against Matias only added to how relaxed he felt.
“And that’s it, I was just calm,” he added. “I could have easily just run around the ring, tried boxing his head off. But I was like, no, I’m going to prove to you I can fight. And I think the whole build up was, he was all, ‘I'm going to break you down.’ ‘I'm going to bring the little girl out in you.’ The tables soon turned around.”
Did Matias take him into the trenches or did Smith volunteer to fight in them?
“I think I more put myself in there,” he said. “Because the first round I absolutely boxed his head off, but as we got into a fight, I just thought I'm comfortable here. I'm comfortable and I enjoyed it. I just enjoyed every moment of it.”
It first seemed like the fight, when first made, would take place in Puerto Rico but Smith didn’t care. Sure, it might have been better for his travelling fans, but his mindset was always: “It is what it is.”
The job was the same, regardless of the location.
“It’s still a fight, it’s still going to be a 12-round fight, 36 minutes,” he said. “It doesn't change anything; I just took everything with a pinch of salt. I didn't get too emotionally involved in it.”
Smith-Matias was one of those rare fights where in the immediate aftermath, all anyone wanted to do was talk about the fight rather than what’s next.
“Yeah, for 24 hours and then everyone is like, what's next?” Smith laughed.
Alberto Puello is Smith’s mandatory, but Dalton will take a couple of weeks out of the gym and try to let things sink in before considering what might be next.
“Nothing's been confirmed,” he said.
“Obviously, I've just done what I needed to do. And then I'm going to have a bit of a downtime. It's been a long process to get this fight done. So, I'm going to have a couple of weeks off, let my dad, [manager] Sean [O’Toole] and Eddie [Hearn] do all that side of the work and then we'll see what's next.”
What would he want, if he could choose anything next?
“The biggest fight at Hillsborough [where Sheffield Wednesday play soccer]. Doesn’t matter who. Whoever the public says the biggest fight for the world title at Hillsborough, that would be the biggest thing for me.”
For the best part of two years, Smith’s name has been mentioned alongside that of Adam Azim, the fast-handed Slough fighter.
Would Azim be the biggest possible fight?
“No, not as we stand right now,” he said.
He is thinking along the lines of other titleholders.
“Yeah, like a big champion, a big American name, something of that calibre, to come over to fight Hillsborough would be massive.”
There is a part of Dalton that is pleased he has a natural rival. He is actively pulling for Azim to do well, to make their potential fight even bigger.
“You’ve got to, like you say, you keep saying you've got to earn your stripes. I've done that,” said Smith.
“And Adam's got my support. I want him to go on and win a world title, get there. But we're young, but I think the fight will happen at the right time.”
While the fight was thrilling, the promotion did not pass without some negativity. People baulked at the pay-per-view cost, and talked about empty seats at the Barclays Center.
Has that taken any shine off it?
“Not really, because all that was out of my hands, that was the opponent’s promotional team. So it was out of my hands, because it would be completely different if it was on DAZN or Matchroom promoting a fight. So I had one job, go over there, get the belt, come back and then bigger and better things.”
In that respect, it was job done and then some.
On Monday, back in England, he was sat having his breakfast staring at his green and gold belt.
“I'm thinking, ‘how the hell is that in my house? Where does this come from? I've got a WBC world title on my kitchen side, like what the hell?’”
Smith knows, once he’s caught up on some sleep and his body clock has regulated, it might sink in a little more.
But Smith’s is a story that holds special significance.
He’s done it all with his dad, Grant, by his side, and Grant has created a brotherhood amongst his stable, with ex-champ Sunny Edwards – now retired, Michael Conlan, Junaid Boston all on hand to support Smith.
“And I think it's hard to get that in a boxing gym, to get the loyalty and how we are, all the lads are together,” Smith said. “And to share a night on Saturday where everyone was there, it was amazing. Something I'll cherish for the rest of my life.”
He and Grant have made countless sacrifices on their way through, to achieve that was first on Smith’s mind when he was just a child.
“It's just all these years of the hardships, the sacrifice, when you're questioning it, it was all worth it for that night on Saturday and me and my dad conquered the world together,” Smith said. “My dad's always been the main part of my boxing career from the start. So, from six years old, I know we were only kids then, but the dream gets bigger and bigger as we go through boxing. You know, my dad learned to become a coach at the same time and it's a great story, and we've absolutely smashed it.”
It's ironic, given the platform that Matias fight was on, that Smith has only watched the fight back once because he can’t find a good stream of it.
But he doesn’t need to watch it again. He was there and knows exactly what happened. He lived his dream and that will last.
Some world champions win the title and they know they will never beat that euphoric high.
Is the pinnacle still out there for Smith, or has he hit his highest high? Can he ever match that emotion?
“I think there's only one way to find out, keep going,” he smiled. “It will be hard to beat, most definitely.”
