Overview
- Fighting at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on January 10, Smith scored a fifth-round stoppage to win the WBC belt in his U.S. debut.
- He closed the show with thudding right hands that dropped Matias; the champion beat the count but was unsteady, prompting the referee to halt it.
- The result marked Matias’s first stoppage loss as Smith improved to 19-0 and captured his first world title.
- Matias had an ostarine finding in November VADA testing, with a B-sample also positive, but New York regulators deemed the concentration below their punishment threshold and the WBC cited likely supplement contamination, allowing the fight to proceed.
- Promoter Eddie Hearn is eyeing unification and a potential Sheffield homecoming, with possibilities including the Teofimo Lopez–Shakur Stevenson winner, IBF titleholder Richardson Hitchins, and WBA champion Gary Antuanne Russell.