Dalton Smith is determined to make his dream of fighting at Hillsborough Stadium a reality.
The new WBC super-lightweight champion is expecting to have a homecoming fight in Sheffield this summer. He's not a stadium headliner yet but in the long run he harbours the ambition of bringing a major fight to Hillsborough.
"That would be a dream come true. That would be the cherry on top of the cake," Smith told Your Site News.
"A big fight at Hillsborough. You say it all these years and people just think 'he's saying it, he's saying it' but to make it become a reality, fighting for a world title, defending a world title, it's unbelievable.
"The ball's rolling in the right direction to get a big fight there. But one fight at a time."
Smith is expected to box mandatory challenger Alberto Puello next.
"We're looking towards June time for a big homecoming in Sheffield," he said. "Nothing's been signed yet. I love an awkward southpaw… That's Puello's style. Puello's been on our radar for the best part of a year. We're very familiar with him, we've done training camps to work on him.
"He's nothing that's going to catch us off guard."
Smith is coming off a career best victory in January when he travelled to New York to beat Subriel Matias with a stunning stoppage in the fifth round to win the WBC world title.
Ahead of their clash Matias tested positive for a banned substance but the bout was allowed to go ahead with the WBC saying that there were "extenuating circumstances," citing Matias' consumption of supplements known to be contaminated with Ostarine and the adverse finding's reported levels of Ostarine being "relatively low".
Undaunted, Smith took out Matias in style. "We knew we were going to have to go in the trenches," he said. "We prepared the best we could. I was confident any situation we were in I could deal with.
"We knew we were going to get in a firefight, you do with Matias. As funny as it is, that's the way to beat him. People said we were mad thinking that. But sometimes you've just got to find ways to win."
Retaining the title should lead Smith to the biggest names in the division, with Shakur Stevenson, Teofimo Lopez and more active at 140lbs.
"The only thing I need to do is keep on winning and those big fights will be there," Smith said. "I'm in the driving seat now. The only thing I need to do now is keep winning and setting myself goals and the sky's the limit.
"I'm a world champion," he concluded. "It's sunk in but I don't think it'll truly sink in until the end of the career. I believe there's a lot more for me to go and achieve. In a way the pressure's off, I've become a world champion, whatever happens in boxing now is a bonus.
"But it doesn't mean the ambition's less. I'm more hungry than ever. Because there's a lot more I can go on to achieve.
"It's been hard work getting to where I'm at now but there's a lot more hard work to be done."
