Dalton Smith is the new WBC World Super-Lightweight champion after a spectacular stoppage win over Subriel Matias in Brooklyn.
Smith started brilliantly in the opening round of the fight at the Barclays Center, and was happy to trade with the fearsome Puerto Rican ruler as the fight caught fire early, but as the fifth round entered it’s final minute, Smith unleashed a devastating assault punctuated with three fearsome right hands that robbed the champion of his senses and sent him to the canvas.
The defending champion was able to beat the count but was in no position to continue, and Britain had a new World champion in the most stunning circumstances.
“There are no words,” said Smith. “A lifelong dream, hard work and sacrifice, it’s all for this moment. My Dad, my Granddad, all my family, we’ve all worked for this and I always believed. It’s a message to anyone that if you believe in yourself, you can go out and achieve your dreams.
“I heard some people say that Dalton Smith ain’t tough. I gave my Dad a bit of a heart attack in there as that wasn’t the game plan, but I took all his best shots and thought ‘you can’t hurt me.’ He was slowing down so I thought ‘persevere, persevere, and I’ll get you.’ We had plan A, B and C, and at World level you have to do it all.
“It’s not going to sink in for a long time but we always knew this would happen. We had everything against us for this fight. The build up, the testing and so on. But I knew that this was my moment and my opportunity, and that you could throw anything at me. I’ve got the best team around me, the best promoter in the world, and it’s a win for us all.
“Show me the money! Let me enjoy this moment now, I’m going to embrace it, and the future is bright.”
For promoter Eddie Hearn, Smith joins the likes of Anthony Joshua and Katie Taylor as fighters he has guided to World title glory from debut, and the proud promoter put the Big Apple night right at the top of the magical away days that he’s enjoyed in the sport.
“You talk about Darren Barker against Daniel Geale, Kell Brook against Shawn Porter, honestly, that beats everything – that’s the greatest away win I’ve ever witnessed,” said Hearn. “Dalton is a hero. You have to box with Matias, you saw that from Liam Paro, but Matias was on tonight, he was red hot, and he didn’t allow Dalton to box.
“So Dalton decided to fight Matias at his own game, which is the worst idea you can have – he’s never been hurt, he’s never been down – and he battered him, put him down, in New York to become the latest British World champion. The kid is a hero and there’s a new superstar in the sport of boxing and his name is Dalton Smith.
“He boxed lovely in the first round and then all of a sudden he’s getting hurt, he’s cut, but he stayed trading with him. They were both getting tired, but Dalton hit him to the body about a minute before the stoppage and really hurt him, and then the right hands landed and that’s all she wrote – that is what dreams are made of.
“We knew Dalton was a star, but to do that on the World stage in New York and in that style. People were talking about this fight and that fight, Adam Azim and the like, Dalton Smith has gone out and accepted the boogeyman, met him head on in New York and stopped Subriel Matias to become the World champion – put some respect on his name.”
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