EXCLUSIVE — At the end of the first week of January, those new diets and routines are really starting to bite. No more cheese, no more wine, no more fun.
These austere times can come as a shock to the system after the festive indulgence. But it's nothing compared to an elite boxer who has been diligently getting himself down to the 10-stone super lightweight limit for weeks, all in the name of a date with destiny and a world-title shot against a feared world champion at Brooklyn's Barclays Center this Saturday, January 10.
So what did Christmas dinner look like for Dalton Smith, the undefeated British star, who tackled big-punching WBC champion Subriel Matias in Brooklyn this weekend?
"S***," Smith replies succinctly to AllSportsPeople, before bursting into laughter. The hardship is more than acceptable when the 28-year-old considers the bigger prize on the table.
"I'm not a massive Christmas dinner fan, anyway," he continues. "People can over-complicate it. Give me one of my Nana's Sunday dinners that's been honed to perfection over years and years any day."
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It feels like a very boxer's answer on a matter of culinary preference. Especially one who practices his craft as immaculately as Smith. Thousands upon thousands of hours working under his father and trainer Grant at the Steel City Gym in his native Sheffield have brought him to this point: 18 fights, 18 wins, 13 knockouts, British, Commonwealth and European titles.
Smith's combination of supreme technique and balance, aligned with spiteful punching, gives him every chance of dethroning Matias, the Puerto Rican knockout artist enjoying his second reign as world champion.
"I know what I'm capable of. I've got to prove it and show it," he says. "I've pushed my body to the limits and I'm excited to go out and get the job done."
Of Matias' 23 professional victories, 22 have come via the power punch. His only distance win came last time out, when he dethroned Alberto Puello last July to win the WBC belt via majority decision. Then, as in the June 2024 defeat to Liam Paro that saw him relinquish the IBF strap, Matias looked rudimentary once it was clear he would not get the job done early.
The 33-year-old's fearsome reputation has taken on a grim undertone in the build-up to the Smith fight. Matias tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug osterine in a Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) out-of-competition test on November 9, throwing this title defence into flux.
FROM THE ARCHIVE: Dalton Smith's interview with AllSportsPeople in August 2022
However, the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) ruled that the concentration detected was below the threshold used under their rules and other major US boxing jurisdictions, including Nevada and California. The WBC said it had identified mitigating factors in Matias' case and the bout will go ahead with the backing of both Mauricio Sulaiman's governing body and the NYSAC.
"I heard a few days before it came out… I wasn't surprised," says Smith before trailing off and adding. "I'll obviously have more to say about it after the fight."
To be clear, Smith's words do not seem to be explicitly accusatory towards Matias. They speak of a weariness when it comes to PEDs in boxing, a stain the sport cannot and seems far too reluctant to scrub away.
"If anyone came into our gym who'd been involved in anything like that, they'd be straight out of the door," he says. "When you do this in boxing… we're not playing tennis, you're trying to hurt people."
It's another element that, ultimately, would make victory all the sweeter. Travelling away from home after Smith's promoter Eddie Hearn lost the purse bid, Smith must come through against a destructive puncher under a cloud of controversy. It truly would be a triumph to savour at a fairly lean time for British boxing.
For a period last year, Liverpool's WBA featherweight champion Nick Ball was the UK's only male world champion. Fabio Wardley and Jazza Dickens are now among that number, having been upgraded to full-champion status by the WBA at heavyweight and super featherweight respectively. Northern Irishman Lewis Crocker also came through his all-Ireland clash with Paddy Donovan to win the vacant IBF welterweight title last September.
All of those are proud achievements and moments for the fighters involved. Still, it's fair to say that dethroning a reigning champion under the bright lights in Brooklyn would hit differently for Smith, who is gunning for greatness in a division that is particularly special in his homeland.
Ricky Hatton ruled the world at 140lbs between 2005 and 2009, with his victory over Kostya Tszyu at the Manchester Arena still one of British boxing's all-time nights. Those deeds were poured over in devastating circumstances during the final quarter of 2025 after the much-loved and adored Hatton took his own life, aged 46.
Smith would never suppose to fill the huge void left by 'The Hitman', but he is conscious of the lineage he is part of as a 10-stone fighter from northern England with the backing of the fanbase from his local soccer team. Sheffield Wednesday are to Dalton what Manchester City were to Ricky.
"To be honest, it gives me goosebumps when you say something like that," he says when the throughline to Hatton comes up. "I looked up to Ricky and followed what he did. I was there for his funeral.
"As sad as this year has been, [the thought of] me to do that, it gives me goosebumps; it would be a special moment to be able to say that - world champion, doing it in the weight where Ricky did it."
After all the necessary Christmas denialism, Smith might hope to feast a little like Hatton in the afterglow of victory.