By Sean McDaniel: Former British super middleweight champion Paul Smith (30-2. 16 KO’s) is moving down in weight to the middleweight division where he hopes to take on British and Commonwealth middleweight champion Martin Murray (23-0, 10 KO’s) in the near future once the 28-year-old Smith gets ranked in the division.

Smith was stopped in the 9th round last year in December by James DeGale, and lost his British super middleweight title in the process. With both DeGale and George Groves still around domestically, Smith is looking for safer waters by moving down to target Murray’s two titles.

However, if Smith can get a fight with Murray, he’s likely to have his hands full with him as well, because Murray is a busy fighter and has excellent skills. Smith suffers from a low work rate in his fights, and he’s not going to be able to punch and grab his way to a decision against a skilled fighter like Murray.

Speaking with the BBC Sport, Smith said “I’ll have this fight [against Butler] to be ranked at middleweight. The Board will then probably make me mandatory challenger for the British and Commonwealth titles…It’s not Martin Murray that I’m screaming out for, it’s the titles.”

Unfortunately, Smith has to actually fight someone for the two titles. That’s how it goes. What’s the point in getting titles if you don’t beat anyone for them?

Smith needs to focus on just getting past Butler first before he starts talking title fights. Butler has lost three out of his last four fights to Darren McDermott, Darren Barker and Brett Floumoy, but you can’t count the guy out. Smith should be able to win this fight but you just never know. He looked terrible in the DeGale fight and Smith also didn’t look at all impressive in his wins over Tony Quigley and Tony Dodson before that.