Paul Smith Return Set For Crolla-Barroso Card

By Elliot Foster

Paul Smith has had his return date and opponent confirmed.

The Liverpool super middleweight, who was set to return earlier this month in his home city before withdrawing due to what was described as a ‘bad virus’, will see action for the first time in over 10 months this weekend.

Smith (35-6, 20 KOs) had been scheduled to fight on his brother Callum’s undercard at the Liverpool ECHO Arena on April 2 but he will instead feature over eight rounds on May 7 at the Manchester Arena.

He will come up against Hungary Daniel Regi (28-13, 15 KOs), who was his opponent for the Liverpool show just over three weeks ago, as part of the undercard to Anthony Crolla’s WBA lightweight world title defence against dynamite-punching Venezuelan mandatory challenger Ismael Barroso.

The show, which is billed ‘Danger Zone’ and will be screened exclusively live on Sky Sports, boasts names such as Martin Murray (32-3-1, 15 KOs) –– who faces George Groves at the O2 Arena on June 25 –– and Tommy Coyle (21-3, 10 KOs) in fights over eight and six rounds respectively.

Hosea Burton, who was originally slated to defend his British light heavyweight title on the bill, will now only do eight rounds before making that aforementioned defence at a later date next month.

Chief support to the world title fight main event is a clash between Shayne Singleton (22-1, 7 KOs) and former two-weight English titlist and ex-Prizefighter champion Adil Anwar (22-5, 8 KOs) for the vacant WBC Silver welterweight crown.

Elsewhere, there is action for local favourite Marcus Morrison (7 KOs), while Warren Baister (3-0, 2 KOs), Sean Ben Mulligan (4-0, 1 KO) and Ben Sheedy (1-0) will feature alongside Prizefighter champion Jono Carroll (9-0, 1 KO), whose last outing was on the undercard of Tyson Fury’s victory over Wladimir Klitschko in Germany last November.

Boxing Scene understands that Kid Galahad (18-0, 9 KOs), who returns from a two-year drugs ban on a Neil Marsh-promoted show at Wigan’s DW Stadium on April 30, is hoping to be added to the card at the last minute should he come out victorious this weekend.