Dalton Smith Beats Alberto Puello By Split Decision To Retain WBC Title

The belt stayed in Sheffield, but there was precious little room between the champion and his challenger. Dalton Smith retained his WBC super lightweight title with a split decision over Alberto Puello at the Utilita Arena, completing his first defence in a contest decided by isolated punches and small adjustments rather than prolonged attacks. England’s Kieran McCann and Spain’s Jon Llona scored it 115-113 for Smith. Filipino judge Ray Danseco preferred Puello by 116-112.

The verdict preserved Smith’s unbeaten record, now 20 wins, 0 losses and 0 draws, with 14 knockouts. Puello falls to 25 wins, 2 losses and 0 draws, with 11 knockouts. Both weighed 139.6 pounds. Referee Lee Every supervised the Matchroom promotion, broadcast by DAZN, as the home crowd urged Smith through a markedly different assignment from his championship victory over Subriel Matias.

Smith stopped Matias in the fifth round in Brooklyn in January, succeeding where Puello had lost his WBC title by majority decision the previous July. This mandatory defence was originally arranged for June before Smith suffered an elbow injury. Against Puello, a former WBA and WBC champion, the task was to solve a mobile southpaw who offered considerably fewer opportunities to stand and trade. Smith’s father and trainer, Grant, had prepared him for an evening requiring patience.

Puello settled first. His reach and measured lead hand helped him establish distance in a cautious opening, and a left through Smith’s guard provided an early reminder of the danger in following him carelessly. Smith responded in the second, beginning to time his right hand and closing the distance more successfully. He found that punch again in the third, forcing Puello backwards without persuading the experienced challenger to abandon his method.

The fourth brought further success for Smith. His right hand was the more conspicuous weapon, although Puello answered with a sharp left and remained difficult to pin down. The champion could win an exchange without securing control of the next. Puello’s feet kept him from becoming a stationary target, while the threat of his counters discouraged Smith from following every successful punch with a longer combination. The crowd supplied plenty of encouragement; neither boxer allowed it to dictate his decisions.

Puello increased his activity in the fifth and made his left hand particularly effective in the sixth, catching Smith cleanly and bringing the contest back towards level terms. A brief visit to the canvas by the challenger was ruled a slip. The movement, jab and straight left were making Smith work for his openings, and there was little opportunity for him to settle into the sustained body attack that might have changed the pattern.

The seventh and eighth continued the argument. Smith tried to shorten the distance and had accurate spells, while Puello kept answering and finding room to work. Neither established a commanding advantage. Smith began the ninth positively, but Puello responded later in the round, another example of the difficulty of separating them. The fight’s quality lay in those answers and adjustments, although anyone expecting a repeat of the Matias exchanges was attending the wrong sort of contest.

The physical evidence began to show in the closing rounds. Smith suffered a cut above his right eye in the tenth and another on his right cheek in the last. Puello pressed his case in the eleventh, landing left hands as Smith answered with rights of his own. The champion increased his effort, but the challenger remained ready to counter. Success was repeatedly followed by a reply, leaving the judges to distinguish between brief, closely matched passages.

Smith finished with an Ali shuffle as his corner celebrated. It was an unusually confident gesture in a fight still open to debate. Puello continued trying to land, and the announcement produced a narrow home victory rather than confirmation of clear superiority. “We knew it wasn’t going to be a show,” Smith said afterwards, describing Puello as an awkward opponent. He credited the experience gained and believed his closing work had secured the result.

Attention immediately turned to WBO champion Shakur Stevenson and the possibility of a unification contest. Smith expressed respect for the American while welcoming that challenge, and promoter Eddie Hearn renewed his ambition to stage a major fight at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough ground. Those are ambitions rather than a confirmed next assignment. Puello leaves with another close championship defeat, having again demonstrated how difficult he is to beat convincingly.

I thought Smith just nicked it, but Puello made him earn every bit of that decision. Dalton timed his right hand well early, catching the southpaw before he could slide away. The problem was sustaining it. Puello kept changing the distance and bringing that straight left back through the middle, stopping Smith from building combinations.

I think Puello deserves huge respect for how he kept his game plan changing throughout the fight, always giving Smith problems to solve. It's rare to find fighters who can do this to the extent the Dominican challenger and former two-time champion did.

Regarding how close the decision actually was, if Puello had got the decision, I wouldn't have disagreed too strongly. I would love to see a rematch because I found the whole fight compelling from the first bell to the last.