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British junior welterweight champion Dalton Smith is motivated to work his way up to the top fighters in his weight class.
This past weekend at the Manchester Arena, Smith won a unanimous decision in his mandatory defense against Kaisee Benjamin.
Smith is now hoping to get bigger challenges in the coming year.
“I’m probably in one of the hardest divisions and there’s plenty of fights out there for me. I’m always going to be in good fights. I’m never going to be short of dance partners. The future looks bright. There’s some big fights out there,” Smith said to Sky Sports.
Two of the boxers at the top of the weight class, are countrymen Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall.
Taylor, who became the undisputed champion in 2021, is still regarded as the top dog at the weight. Currently he’s only holding the WBO strap after vacating three titles to make a rematch with Catterall in early 2023.
“Even though [Taylor is at] the same weight, they were idols to me coming through. I always said Josh pound-for-pound was one of the best fighters in the world. I’m a fan of both Catterall and Josh. They’re the top of the game, they’re where I want to get to, they’re the fighters I’m looking up to,” Smith said.
“They say keep working hard till your idols become your rivals. That’s what it is. Josh, pound-for-pound one of the best fighters in the world and to get comments like that, it shows they’re keeping an eye on me and I’m impressing.
“It’s every boxer’s dream. You want to win world titles. To become undisputed, not many fighters do it. Only a handful of fighters actually do it. To be able to do that, that puts you in the history books. You’re in the history books forever as one of the greatest fighters of all time.”