Steel City style: WBC champ Dalton Smith flying the flag for Sheffield boxing in tough Alberto Puello defence

UTILITA ARENA, SHEFFIELD — When Dalton Smith steps out to make the first defence of his WBC super lightweight title against former two-time world champion Alberto Puello at Sheffield Arena on Saturday night, he will know as well as anyone that he is continuing a proud lineage.

There is a lot of history in this building, specifically when it comes to young men from a fighting city like no other conquering the world.

The great 'Prince' Naseem Hamed made the eighth defence of his WBO featherweight title on a raucous night in October 1997, dominating Puerto Rico's Jose Badillo over seven rounds. It was the bout before Hamed engaged in his all-time classic action fight with Kevin Kelley in New York.

Kell Brook headlined here nine times, winning each time, in a run that included his one-sided IBF welterweight title defences against Jo Jo Dan and Kevin Bizier.

A decade on from Brook's banner nights, Smith will ringwalk to the familiar strains of 'When the Sun Goes Down' by Arctic Monkeys, turning up the volume to maximum Sheffield. Like Brook, when he dethroned Shawn Porter in 2014, the 29-year-old travelled to America to defeat a feared champion to lift his title.

FLASHBACK: Subriel Matias vs. Dalton Smith: Sheffield boxer eyeing his Ricky Hatton moment

Don't forget his thrilling fifth-round KO of the power-punching Subriel Matias in the performance-of-the-year conversation, just because it happened in the second week of January. Puello, a slick and awkward southpaw, presents an altogether different challenge.

"I went to quite a few of the Kell Brook ones. Obviously Clinton Woods too," said Smith, who went out for celebratory drinks with former IBF light-heavyweight champion on his return to Sheffield after the Matias fight. "We kept it local. I think if we'd been into town it would have been a bit hectic.

"But I went to quite a few growing up. There's a lot of history in that arena. And of course, that's what I always wanted to do: become a world champion, be the next star of Sheffield. Keep that torch burning, and I believe I'm doing that. It's going to be an unbelievable feeling; Saturday is going to be special."

There's a tendency outside of these islands to just talk about "British fighters"; a homogeneous blob of willing sluggers who cut easily and take a few too many shots. But you'd never talk about "American fighters" as a single entity. A boxer trained in Philadelphia will take pride in telling you their gyms teach them better than any in Detroit ever could, and anyone punching for pay from the Motor City would tell you never to believe it.

Sheffield has plenty in common with those former industrial heartlands of America; a proud working-class city that has endured a painful era of readjustment following the decline of the coal and steel industries.

"It's a hardworking city. I think we're pretty grounded people," said Smith, whose father and trainer Grant founded the Steel City Gym while working as a self-employed kitchen fitter. "And I think the people get behind the fighters. That's a big part of boxing in Sheffield."

But alongside the familiar grit and toughness that comes from such environments, there's a particular style.

"A little bit of flash, unorthodox styles," trainer Dave Coldwell told The Sporting News. "Not straight up, back straight, stiff, hands high; it was never ever any of that. Whether you had your hands by your sides, or you had your hands just around your chest, it's that loose, flexible style, good feet. That was, that was a Sheffield style."

Coldwell runs a thriving gym in neighbouring Rotherham and coached Tony Bellew and Jamie McDonnell to world title successes. But he began his journey in the sport at the Wincobank gym under the watchful eye of the inimitable Brendan Ingle. Wincobank is to boxing in Sheffield what Gleason's is to Brooklyn and the Kronk is to Detroit.

Dublin-born, Ingle moved to Sheffield as an 18-year-old to pursue a career in boxing and work in the steel trade. A moderate professional, he found his calling as a trainer – founding a gym at the heart of his community that took in all comers.

"I was like a classic school whimp back then. I used to get beat up at school. I had a really rough childhood at home as well," Coldwell explained. "It took a lot of courage for me to walk through the doors of that gym.

"I remember the first person I saw was doing a squat with a barbell on his back. He was growling, and he looked at me as I was walking past, so I thought he was growling at me. I walked straight back out of the gym and absolutely crapped myself.

"It took me about 15 minutes of battling all my demons, walking back down Wincobank Hill to run away, and I ended up turning around and plucking up the courage to walk in. It's the best thing I ever did. That changed my life.

"It gave me a place where I could say that I had friends. It gave me a place where I could work on myself to try and get better at something. It allowed me to dream big, to work at something to improve myself without getting ridiculed for it and without having to hide it because everybody in the gym is doing the same thing; they were all trying to get better. So it was huge for my life, for my personality and for my development."

Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing

Everyone at the gym had to commit to Ingle's unorthodox methods, from the non-negotiable of diligent time spent perfecting footwork on Wincobank's infamous lines to limiting full sparring, with a focus on tech and body spars. It was maverick at the time but now feels pioneering.

Hamed and Brook were the star graduates, along with Johnny Nelson. Former cruiserweight king Nelson was Ingle's great project as he recovered from early career defeats and humiliating near misses to become a long-reigning WBO champion. Herol 'Bomber' Graham always comes up in the conversation of the best British fighters never to win a world title, while Junior Witter and Kid Galahad scaled that mountain at super lightweight and featherweight respectively.

Ingle died in May 2018 and his son Dominic, Brook's principal trainer during his world title run, oversees the gym today. Even though they didn't hit the heights in their fighting careers, Glyn Rhodes at the Sheffield Boxing Centre and Coldwell have gone on to be esteemed coaches.

"There were people in that gym who had no hope in life, never mind in sport," Coldwell said. "And Brendan would take them in, and they'd go out and end up getting good jobs, just being decent people and successful people in their own right. And then he had the champions, the names you've heard of who we all talk about."

Another Wincobank legacy is people applying the Ingle success story; realising that you can set something up and do it your own way. Grant Smith is as good an example as any.

"My dad didn't come from a boxing background and what he's done for himself in the gym, with multiple world champions, that's a legacy in itself," said Dalton. "We're both proud; I'm proud of him, and I'm sure he's proud of me. We've got much more to achieve. We want to do a lot more for the community and for the city of Sheffield."

As recent coverage of Daniel Dubois and Moses Itauma's cornerman Ben Davison has shown, boxing trainers without a fighting background in the sport can be on the receiving end of some pretty sniffy observations. But it's hard to find anyone with a bad word to say about Grant Smith.

"I have a lot of respect for Grant because he wasn't in the Ingle setup. He did his own thing," Coldwell said. "He took his son, trained his son, set up an amateur club, and turned professional with him. Everybody was saying, 'Oh yeah, but he's not done this, he's not done that', and he's done it his way.

"I go into that gym quite regularly.I haven't done for this camp, because I've not had anyone sparring with Dalton, but normally. I've always either had Stephen Cairns or Ellis Price working with him. I've got to say, it's my favourite gym to go into. Grant's a great guy, Dalton's a beautiful kid, but the camaraderie in that gym… It's easygoing, it's welcoming, it's fun, there are good characters, but they get the work done and it's hard work."

Puello is a hard night's work for anyone, but if Smith's aptitude against southpaws and well-rounded skillset can get the job done, a banner night at Hillsborough – the home of his beloved Sheffield Wednesday FC – beckons next summer. Domestic rival Adam Azim, pound-for-pound superstar and reigning WBO super lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson — nothing will feel off the table for Smith.

Smith has studiously dismissed such talk as "noise" all week, acknowledging he is in for a very tough night against the once-beaten Puello. Nevertheless, a Hillsborough night to match Brook taking Errol Spence to Sheffield United's Bramall Lane is "the star that's shining ahead of us".

"If we talk Hillsborough, a dream would be to have the Arctic Monkeys there, live at Hillsborough," he added. "And, you know, dreams can come true."

Brendan Ingle taught Sheffield boxers that many decades ago. Smith's weekend homecoming is the latest reminder that it's rarely steered them wrong.