Dalton Smith is already eyeing a massive unification bout with Shakur Stevenson, even with his first WBC light welterweight title defense against Alberto Puello just days away.
Smith (19-0, 14 KOs) meets Puello on October 24 at Utilita Arena Sheffield. The unbeaten titleholder wants this victory to catapult him toward marquee names. Shakur sits near the top of his target list, but Puello can ruin everything.
“I’m boxing to be a part of the biggest fights possible. Of course the Shakur fight would be up there as one of the biggest. I’d love to be a part of that,” Smith told the Boxing World YouTube channel. “But of course, I have to get through Puello first.”
Smith grabbed the WBC belt back in January by stopping Subriel Matias inside five rounds during his US debut. Blowing through Matias earned him huge momentum, though it guarantees nothing against Puello.
Puello brings an awkward southpaw style. Smith will not get the same gifts he received from Matias, who walked straight in until he got caught by heavy counters. Puello is far more than a tune-up on the way to a Shakur payday. This matchup tests whether Dalton can defend his crown against a completely different kind of opponent.
“I don’t overlook what’s in front of me, but once I get the job done against Puello, I want to be chasing the biggest fights possible,” Smith said.
Puello (25-1, 11 KOs) has his own motives to spoil the party and steal that massive future date for himself. Calling out Shakur is the easy part for Smith. He still has to leave the ring with the belt.
Even if he gets past Puello, Dalton is overlooking the obstacles that will prevent him from fighting Shakur next. The network and promotional divide makes the Shakur-Smith fight virtually impossible to assemble right now. Shakur is signed with Zuffa and locked into Paramount+, while Smith is a Matchroom flagship fighter tied to DAZN.
Dual-network broadcasts only happen when the revenue numbers are astronomical, like Gervonta Davis against Ryan Garcia or massive undisputed heavyweight cards funded by deep foreign pockets. Dalton Smith versus Shakur Stevenson is nowhere near that category.
Neither guy moves US pay-per-view buys on that scale, and Zuffa has zero incentive to share production, split domestic rights, or loan out Shakur to DAZN for an ordinary regular-subscription card.
Dalton is known almost exclusively in the UK, and Shakur has struggled to build an audience that translates into commercial event revenue.
Zuffa Boxing did not bring Shakur to Paramount+ just to farm him out to DAZN or hand Matchroom control of an international production. If Zuffa wants Shakur in a unification or a meaningful fight at 140 pounds, they have zero business justification to share the pie with an outside streaming rival on an event with minimal domestic pay-per-view appetite.