Sam Smith - Do you Really Want to Hurt Me?
East Leeds Magazine Editorial Staff, May 2010

Two days before Sam Smith’s EBF British Lightweight defence, her coach Lee Murtagh looked troubled:

"I don’t understand, nothing seems to have gone wrong. Sam’s training well, no worries there; her opponents are in regular contact, they’ll be here without a shadow of doubt; venues all sorted; barring any last minute hitches we’re ready; even my knee feels better.”

Only days after her last fight Sam had taken a challenge for her belt. There was never any danger of her not accepting it even if it was short notice:

“I was already fight fit after the last fight, so I had a week off, then got back into training. This is what I want to do, I love it, love the training, the preparation, the whole fight scene.”

Lee’s Ring-Saoirse Promotions already had a bout and a venue booked in Bramley, so it wasn’t any hassle to put Sam on top of the bill. Her opponent Stacey Doherty came from Belfast, via London. She’d done the rounds on the amateur circuit in both Belfast and London combining boxing & kick boxing. She was tough, ready & prepared:

‘I knew this had the makings of good contest and a good fight for Sam. Her opponent was very worldy wise, very tough and I’d heard she liked a war in the ring.”

And that’s how the fight was looking in the first round. Stacey came out of the blocks quickly, taking the fight to Sam:

“I managed to get a couple of shots in early but then so did she, she was strong, relativley unaffected by my early punches.”

Although it wasn’t quite the brawl Sam had against Anissa Haddaoui, judging from the first round, it had the potential to be:

“I sat her down after the first round, told her not to go trading punch for punch, I didn’t want to see her in a war. Sam had to get her jab going, keep her at distance and chose her time. I could see Sam was a better boxer but maybe not a better brawler."

And that’s exactly what Sam did. She went out for the second and worked her jab... for about 10 seconds before unleashing a right that would have stopped Concorde. Credit to Sam for not going in for the finish. The referee stopped it straight away anyhow, Stacey was obviously hurt but it took good split second judgement from Sam to realise that a follow up punch might have inflicted potentially permanant damage:

“She came back to the corner with Stacey’s blood all over her & I said, so much for taking your time then.” Sam was relieved to hear Stacey was alright.

“I wouldn’t go in the ring to try and hurt someone permanantly, I could see the blood was a very deep red and she cowered away, so I didn’t go for a spectacular finish. I enjoyed the fight, she used the weight advantage well in the first round but Lee gave good advice, though the opening came quicker than expected.”

So it’s feet up and a rest for Sam now for a while? Er, no.

“I want to fight in East Leeds, that’s where I’m from, I want to fight there as a thank you to everyone that makes the effort to come and watch me. I want another fight before the European rematch.”

So the hunt was on for Lee to find a suitible venue and opponent..

“Who’d be Sam’s manager, it’s a full time job in itself? One fight out of the way and on her way back to the dressing room she says - 'I want another, sort me another defence out.' It’s not that easy. It’s a matter of finding a place that’s big enough, with decent facilities and also high enough to take the ring It’s also got to be vacant! After an extensive search throughout East Leeds, Lee settled on Crossgates Working Mens' Club on Orchard Road:

“It’s a great venue, perfect for boxing with it having 3 tiers. A good size and very airy. A very highly rated girl from Nottingham got in touch a few weeks ago actually, she’s itching to fight Sam. The Commonwealth title is up for grabs as well as Sams' British Title. So that’s it. We’re ready for another bout, the 6th of the 6th. Got the venue, got the opponent, now what could possibly go wrong?”