Dalton Smith’s Sheffield homecoming has been cancelled.
Dalton Smith vs Alberto Puello for the WBC super-lightweight world title has been postponed due to an injury for the champion.
Set for June 6th at the Utilita Arena, Dalton Smith (19-0, 14ko’s) was returning home for his first defence of his WBC super-lightweight world title.
Nicknamed as ‘Thunder’, Smith did what many thought he couldn’t in January.
That was travel to New York to drop and stop the champion Subriel Matias (23-3, 22ko’s) in dramatic fashion at the Barclays Centre.
A first defence against Alberto Puello (24-0, 10ko’s) was a tough ask, but if Smith was to get through the test, then some massive fights were on the other side.
Details of the injury have not yet been disclosed, but despite losing another massive UK main event, the show will go on.
In what was set to be a stacked night of fighting, Galal Yafai (9-0, 7ko’s) will now challenge Ricardo Sandoval (27-2, 18ko’s) in the main event for the WBC and WBA unified world flyweight titles.
Yorkshiremen and fan favourite Josh Padley (18-1, 6ko’s) makes the first defence of his EBU European super-lightweight title against Aqib Fiaz (14-1, 2ko’s).
A plethora of Matchroom prospects are also on the bill, including standouts Leo Atang (6-0, 5ko’s) and Adam Maca (5-0, 5ko’s).
With Smith-Puello being a mandatory fight ordered by the WBC, this will likely be rescheduled.
How soon is yet to be seen.
This will depend on the severity of the injury to the 29 year old.
What is great to see is that once again Matchroom Boxing have been able to keep the show running.
What this does is allow all the undercard fighters to continue their development and get paid as they enter an important stage of their careers.
After Yafai’s last fight against someone now banned for use of performance enhancing drugs, this is a great opportunity to become not just a world champion but a unified one.
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