On Thursday, there was a surprise announcement when super middleweight Callum Smith revealed that he was joining the World Boxing Super Series tournament.

Some of his countryman have already agreed to be part of the eight man tourney, including WBA champion George Groves, IBO champion Chris Eubank Jr and undefeated Jamie Cox.

Smith on the other hand, was the mandatory challenger to the WBC title and he was scheduled to face Anthony Dirrell for the vacant WBC belt, which was dropped by Badou Jack in January when he announced his move to light heavyweight.

The fight with Dirrell was scheduled to take place on September 9 in Los Angeles, but then there was an unexpected development when Dirrell began pushing to move the fight to his hometown of Flint, Michigan.

The negotiations were dragging on and Smith was tired of sitting on the shelf doing nothing. And by entering the tournament, Smith puts himself in position for several titles and a lot of money.

"I think I finally got to a point where I was constantly talking about fights, but none of them were actually happening," Smith told Sky Sports. "It just reached a point where I had enough and I needed to secure a fight date. I've been given one off the tournament and I know 100 percent it will happen.

"It won't still be up in the air whether there's going to be a changed location. I took too long waiting around and I had to make a decision. I spoke with my family, my brothers and they all agreed to go with the tournament and if I win that I come out as a world champion and my profile is a lot bigger and then the WBC, IBF, WBO - them titles will be all there to fight for. I've chosen this route because I'm confident I'm the best fighter in it and I can win it overall."