Dalton Smith teases title fight at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough in 2024

‘Thunder’ is hoping to continue his 14-0 record and add Sam Maxwell’s Commonwealth Title to his growing collection of the WBA Intercontinental Title, WBC International Silver Title and British Title on July 1^st when they meet at the Sheffield Arena – but he’s still aiming for more.

Smith made the trip to London a couple of weeks ago to watch his Owls beat Barnsley and secure a spot in next season’s Championship, and he thinks that he’s on track to being able to being able to strut his stuff at S6 next summer.

"It was only two weeks ago I was at Wembley myself,” he said in his media brief. “We got the promotion. Like I say, I want to bring the big fights to Sheffield. Sheffield Wednesday are right behind me, the supporters there, and not only that – the whole of Sheffield.

“I’m putting big nights of boxing back into Sheffield - especially the Hillsborough one, I’m confident as long as I keep winning I’m going to make that dream become a reality next year.

"I dreamt of having every single belt on my mantlepiece. Sometimes we forget what we’re actually achieving. Sometimes we get caught up in the process of it all. Sometimes you have to sit back and realise what you’ve actually achieved. I’m one fight away from keeping that British Title for keeps.”

Wednesday COO, Liam Dooley, recently told The Star that they were making plans in order to make an event like a Smith title fight happen, stating that they’re eager for Hillsborough to become more than just a football stadium in years to come.

“The long-term vision is that we want to be in a position where we can host events like a Dalton Smith fight,” Dooley explained. “But we also want to be a music venue in years to come.

“We would rather, in five years’ time, have one of our brilliant local bands to be playing Hillsborough Stadium, but there are things we need to do infrastructure-wise to facilitate that… Instead of just having matchdays circa 25 days a year, we want to host events – we can then drive revenues and improve the facilities simultaneously.

“There is no set timescale, but these are the kind of ambitions we have as a club and something we want to move towards.”