Callum Smith continued to make a name for himself after knocking out Ruben Acosta in the sixth round to win the WBC international title.
Smith, a 23-year-old British super middleweight rapidly rising up the boxing ladder, successfully handled his biggest challenge yet in Acosta, a 35-year-old with 27 victories to his name.
He rose to the occasion by pounding his veteran adversary during the Kell Brook-Vyacheslav Senchenko undercard. The young up-and-comer displayed a deadly mixture of size and speed throughout the bout en route to seizing the vacant title over Acosta.
While celebrating Smith's victory, his team set the bar high for the Liverpool native's future in the boxing scene.
The 6'3" fighter stood tall over Acosta after knocking him down twice during the sixth round. After regaining his feet from the first knockdown, Acosta was sent back to the mat for good shortly after with a decisive body shot via a right hook.
Smith improves to an unblemished 9-0, but that does not even tell the full story of his dominance. Leading up to this fight, Smith resoundingly won his last six fights during the first round. That made advancing to the second frame an occasion First Class Boxing felt was worth noting.
Smith, however, welcomed the tougher competition. He also does not appear to be succumbing to arrogance in the midst of his scorching streak. According to Sky Sports, he embraced the challenge of fighting a battle-tested competitor and admitted Acosta poked some holes in his game throughout the bout.
He was a good opponent and I think I learned a lot more in that fight than I did in my last eight. As much as I enjoyed the early knockouts, you can't beat that. He caught me a few times when I was being sloppy, so I learned a lot. You've got to be switched on at all times - one shot can change a fight and I got tagged a few times there. There's still stuff to learn.
It's important for any young fighter to lace up against someone who can push him to the brink of defeat. Complacency can kick in after numerous first-round knockouts, but Smith learned the necessity of executing a nuanced strategy rather than relying on his superior talent to notch an easy win.
While Smith still is a relatively unknown name, that could quickly change with more outings akin to his effort on Saturday. His team might not just by hyping their guy when forecasting a world championship in his future.
Note - Scorecard: Fight ended via knockout
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