Dalton Smith became Britain’s latest bowing world champion after knocking out Subriel Matias in the fifth round in Brooklyn to claim the WBC light-welterweight title.<\/p>\n
The Sheffield fighter, 28, extended his unbeaten record as a pro to 19-0 when a right hook dropped Puerto Rico’s Matias and the referee called for the stoppage, despite Matias attempting to get to his feet.<\/p>\n
Smith had rocked his opponent with another right hand earlier in the same round.<\/p>\n
Speaking after his huge win at the Barclays Centre, the Brit said: “Listen, it’s the first time in my career I’ve been the underdog and the first time I’ve fought a monster.<\/p>\n
“Take nothing away from Subriel – he’s a great champion. I didn’t really stick to the tactics tonight. I played him at his own game. You can’t hurt me and I knew I’d get to him.<\/p>\n
“This is a message to every kid out there. Do not let anybody tell you can’t achieve your dreams because if you work hard, you can do it.<\/p>\n
“Bring on the challenges. I’m one of the best, if not the best in the division. I’m ready to mix it up with everyone.”<\/p>\n
Smith joins compatriots Fabio Wardley (heavyweight), Lewis Crocker (welterweight), Jazza Dickens (super-featherweight) and Nick Ball (featherweight) as a current male world champion.<\/p>\n
A homecoming fight could be next for Smith, with promoter Eddie Hearn saying: “Smith has announced himself as the light-welterweight superstar. The future is unbelievable.<\/p>\n
“Now, fighting at Hillsborough (Sheffield Wednesday Football Club’s ground) is a reality.”<\/p>\n
Smith’s debut fight on American soil was in danger after Matias tested positive for a banned substance last November, but it was decided a month later that the 33-year-old was not guilty of violating the drug policy.<\/p>\n
Matias’ uppercuts and combination punches challenged Smith early on but the Brit rallied as the dethroned champion was knocked out for the first time and saw his record as a pro dip to 23-3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dalton Smith became Britain’s latest bowing world champion after knocking out Subriel Matias in the fifth round in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-402084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}