Royston Barney-Smith is a gifted southpaw who faces a step-up test on Saturday in Dublin.
He meets veteran Reece Bellotti at the 3Arena on the card topped by Pierce O’Leary’s clash with Mark Chamberlain.
Barney-Smith is ranked No. 9 with the WBO and No. 12 with the IBF but, before he looks too far ahead, he must focus first on Bellotti.
“The box I want to tick off the most is cementing myself as a true champion,” said the Southampton, England, junior lightweight. “[It’s] not really [about] where it’s at or who it’s against. It’s more the fact of everyone knowing that I am the best in my division.
“I’m only 22, so I’m probably going to stick around at this weight for a few more years. But definitely I’m big enough to fill out to lightweight and maybe super lightweight if I start struggling at all. But at the minute I’m just looking to cement myself as a true champion at this weight first.”
Barney-Smith is trained by Ben Davison, and they both recall the time they linked up. Billy Joe Saunders instigated the pairing when Royston was 17 and Barney-Smith went for a trial.
He left a week later not having thrown a punch in anger.
“I just had the vibe he was a young kid that wanted to smash the pads and impress on the pads,” said Davison. “I think I had him drive down from Southampton for about three weeks straight, didn’t even let him throw a punch, he was just shadowboxing.
“I wanted to see if he really wanted it because there’s a lot of kids nowadays that want to hit the pads and want to be a ‘boxer,’ so to speak, but don’t really want to do the nitty-gritty and the boring stuff.
“So he passed that first test and obviously I could see it. I knew he had talent from his amateur accolades, and very early on, had him sparring the likes of Josh Taylor, so I knew he had ability and skill.”
Of course, Barney-Smith had been chomping at the bit to show what he could do.
“Ben doesn’t really look for what I can do,” said the fighter. “He looks at me in the way of, ‘How coachable is a fighter?’ Not really, ‘Watch me, watch what I can do.’
“It’s, well, ‘Can I teach you something that you may not know? And how would you listen to that and take that into the ring and see if it would work for you?’”
Barney-Smith reckons he has only shown around 15-20 per cent of what he’s capable of thus far, in part because of what he’s done in sparring behind closed doors.
It is the sparring he particularly enjoys.
On a recent training camp to Marbella, while some of Davison’s boxers enjoyed the nightlife, Barney-Smith and Pat and Luke McCormack settled for early nights in a separate villa as they were in training for their upcoming dates.
“It’s just a case of development,” Davison added. “And I think he’s done that really well, especially with the help of [promoter] Frank Warren, of course. We don’t really work with fighters that we don’t think have the potential to go on to become a world champion, and you can only box for a British title at 21, and he’s 22 and won a British title, so at the minute, he’s on a great trajectory and is in a great position for his age. We believe he’s got the potential to become a world champion.”
Davison said the only real similarity between Barney-Smith and Saunders, who he also trained, is that they are right-handed southpaws and he clearly has plenty of respect for the seasoned Bellotti.
Asked whether the young-looking Barney-Smith has his “man strength” yet, Davison added: “It’s coming bit by bit. He can dig, he can punch, he’s definitely got a bit of pop.
“But that physical man strength that people talk about, that physicality, that’s definitely something that we work on. He’s developing in the gym, spending time, people on his chest, getting used to that, being able to match the physicality of the men in there and people of bigger weight classes, et cetera, to try and help develop that area of his game. So far, so good.”
That is the case for Barney-Smith.
He’s 16-0 (8 KOs), has razor-sharp hand speed and reflexes, and his southpaw style creates a hesitancy in orthodox fighters who might have a hard time figuring out exactly what’s coming at them by the time they’ve been hit.
“He’s long, he’s sharp, he can punch,” said Davison.
And he has a natural opponent to build towards, too. Barney-Smith fights out of Southampton and is in the same division as WBC interim champion Ryan Garner. He was ringside to watch Garner’s recent win over Michael Magnesi at St Mary’s Stadium, which would be the perfect venue if they fight in the future.
“He showed a lot of heart, strength, fitness. He’s coming to his prime now,” Barney-Smith said of Garner’s big win.
“He’s becoming a very good fighter and a person to look out for in the weight division.”
While Bellotti comes first, are they on a collision course?
“I think so, yes,” he said. “At this precise moment, no. But in the near future, 100 per cent. Not in a bad way. I know him. I know him well. If we see each other, we’ll say hello, goodbye. But it’s boxing at the end of the day. If it makes sense, then everything happens for a reason and I do believe that fight will come off.”
