Dalton Smith has already demonstrated his willingness to walk off the beaten path to get what he wants. By agreeing to a clash with Alberto Puello for his first title defense – set for June 6 at Smith’s hometown Utilita Arena Sheffield in England – he showed he isn’t about to take a backwards step now.
That would surprise no one who witnessed his January stoppage of Subriel Matias, in which Smith balled up and tossed away his initial fight plan to trade blows with the division’s most-feared puncher and then sparked Matias in the fifth round at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, to capture the belt in rousing fashion.
“Yeah, you know, life's gotten a little bit busier,” Smith, 19-0 (14 KOs), told “BoxingScene Today” in a Wednesday interview. “There's a lot more eyes, but it's part of the parcel.”
Both the punch and the performance against Matias left quite the impression. In the aftermath, Matchroom Boxing head Eddie Hearn, Smith’s promoter, called it “the greatest away win I’ve ever felt or witnessed, whatever you call it. Dalton Smith is a fucking hero.”
But Puello, a 24-1 (10 KOs) southpaw from the Dominican Republic and now training out of Las Vegas, represents a very different kind of challenge. If Matias was dynamite, the 31-year-old Puello is a straight razor.
“I think he's a great fighter,” Smith said of Puello. “He's two-time world champion, and everybody who's close and knows me, they know I love an awkward southpaw. I always used to do well against them in the amateurs, and I’ve fought six or seven as a professional. So it's a fight I'm excited for. … I believe I’ll be able to find weaknesses in his style that not many people have done up to now.”
Puello's first reign was as WBA titleholder and ended when he was stripped after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. (Puello said he had used the substance to help conceive with his wife.) With a 2024 win over Gary Antuanne Russell, Puello captured the interim WBC belt and was then elevated to a full titleholder when Devin Haney vacated. Puello defended it against Sandor Martin but lost the belt in a majority decision to Matias last July – Puello's first defeat.
“You know, we’re no strangers to Puello,” Smith said. “We was looking at him before, when him and Matias was fighting. So we've studied him quite a bit, and I think it's gonna be a great fight.”
As tricky as Puello is sure to be, it’s easy to imagine Smith, trafficking in a loaded division, doing blockbuster business very soon – especially given how well his home fans traveled in his win in New York.
“You can't overlook anyone,” Smith said. “I always take it one fight at a time. I've got a job to do with Puello first, and then the bigger fights come after that. So you look at the division – there’s Shakur [Stevenson] there, there’s [Richardson] Hitchins, and there's some big fights. Like you said, I'm ranked No. 1 now. So get the job done here, and then there's some big fights to be made. My job is to keep my feet on the ground, keep on winning, and I'll be a part of those.”
Adam Azim, 14-0 (11 KOs), is a countryman and another potential opponent who keeps getting floated around Smith, who admits he would love to next put on a fight at Hillsborough Stadium, home of Sheffield Wednesday F.C. A matchup there with Slough’s Azim would make one hell of a domestic matchup of unbeatens, should Smith get through Puello.
“One fight at a time,” he said. “I've got to keep on winning to make these dreams come into reality.
“We're lucky as fighters to have dance partners, and we've got to take advantage of them. But I've done it the hard way. I’ve come through the traditional route. I've never skipped anyone, and I've had to prove myself at world level. So I believe Albert’s got to do that. He's got to prove he’s world-level. Because you can't give no easy shots to anyone when you've done it the hard way.”
Jason Langendorf is the former Boxing Editor of ESPN.com, was a contributor to Ringside Seat and the Queensberry Rules, and has written about boxing for Vice, The Guardian, Sun-Times and other publications. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, he can be found at LinkedIn and followed on X and Bluesky.
