British fighters winning world titles on American soil is a list that stretches back more than a century. Can Dalton Smith add himself as the latest to do it?
From Ted ‘Kid’ Lewis to Alan Minter and Lloyd Honeyghan, and from Lennox Lewis to Kell Brook and Darren Barker, several Britons have travelled Stateside and returned home as world champions. Five years ago, Tyson Fury added his name to that roll of honour when he demolished Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas to capture the WBC heavyweight title.
This Saturday night, another British challenger attempts to do the same. The WBC’s green and gold belt will be on the line at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn when destructive Puerto Rican puncher Subriel Matias (23-2, 22 KOs) defends his super-lightweight world title against Sheffield’s Smith.
Such is Matias’s relentless, pressure-heavy style — and his appetite for toe-to-toe combat — that the bout represents the biggest test of Smith’s career to date.
One former holder of the WBC super-lightweight title knows exactly what it takes to win that belt. Tim Bradley captured it in Nottingham in May 2008 when he dethroned Junior Witter. Now 42, Bradley is a regular pundit on his YouTube channel following a spell as an analyst on Top Rank broadcasts for ESPN, and he made his feelings on Matias-Smith abundantly clear.
“Dalton Smith about to get his ass chopped the hell up. Y’all know who he fighting? He ain’t never fought nobody at this calibre. Is it an opportunity to prove he’s at that level? Yeah. But I don’t think he at that level.”
Bradley then questioned the quality of opposition Smith (18-0, 13 KOs) has faced heading into his maiden world title challenge.
“Dalton Smith — a good little counterpuncher, got a good right hand, good left hook — but he fighting bums over there in England. They don’t bring no heat. He ain’t been in there with a real one that can punch. He ain’t felt that pain he gonna feel when Matias brings that pressure on him.
“Matias is one of them guys that’ll mow your ass down. This ain’t going 12 rounds.”
The fight has not been without controversy. In November, it emerged that Matias had returned an adverse analytical finding in a VADA drugs test. The WBC ruled that the positive test for Ostarine was the result of contaminated supplements, placed Matias on a one-year probation period and allowed the contest to proceed.
Further criticism followed after it was confirmed that UK fans would need to pay £41.95 via PPV.com to watch the fight. Had Smith’s promoter Matchroom won the purse bids, the bout would have aired on DAZN as part of its standard monthly subscription, but Eddie Hearn was outbid by Matias’s promoter, Fresh Productions.
For Smith, the noise surrounding the fight is irrelevant. History, sceptics and a feared champion all await — and if he is to join Britain’s select group of world champions crowned in America, he will have to do it the hardest way possible.
