Dalton Smith and Adam Azim should be taught lesson from James DeGale and George Groves feud

Dalton Smith and Adam Azim will fight a week apart as a bout between the two seemingly remains further than ever away.

The paths these two light-welterweight talents are on are not crossing soon. Smith, 27, will continue his old-school course from being English to British to Commonwealth champion by fighting little-known Frenchman Walid Ouizza for the European strap on Saturday night in Nottingham.

Azim, 22, faces former world champion Sergey Lipinets at Wembley Arena next Saturday. Two shows that will fail to bring in much more than boxing hardcore supporters when UK sports fans are craving big events on these shores as Saudi Arabia continues to bring the best fights to their country.

Both boxers continue to make the right noises in public about facing each other in 2025. But this is going one of two ways. The first is a repeat of the Carl Frampton and Scott Quigg saga when both bickered for years before eventually fighting for world titles on a huge stage.

That was a momentous night and, even though the fight didn’t deliver thrills and spills, it remains one of the biggest events on British soil outside of the heavyweights in the last decade. Yet Smith nor Azim have similar pull in ratings on TV or in paying punters as Frampton did. Both would need to significantly grow interest in themselves before they would get close to that.

The other way it goes is Saudi boxing powerbroker Turki Alalshikh bankrolls the bout and it ends up buried on a stacked undercard either in Riyadh or somewhere else. That will do little good for the British boxing scene which is crying out for new stars.

Instead, Smith and Azim should be following the path of James DeGale and George Groves. Fighting each other earlier on in their careers and proving that defeat won’t stop them from reaching the very top like it didn’t with DeGale. Yet even with Smith’s promoter Eddie Hearn and Azim’s promoter Ben Shalom pretending to play nicely now as they’re all in with Alalshikh, there remains roadblocks to deals for the pair to face each other.

Smith will go for world honours this year, Azim’s plans remain a little less clear. Watch out for Derby’s Harry Scarff against Wolverhampton’s Conah Walker for the British and Commonwealth welterweight belts on the undercard tonight.

While London super-bantamweight Ellie Scotney and Kiwi Mea Motu (20-0, 8 KOs) collide for the IBF and WBO titles.

Smith v Ouizza is live on DAZN