Sniper looking forward to Snow showdown

SAM SMITH was left frustrated when heavy snow led to one of his fights being called off earlier this year, but he is thrilled to see Snow very much back on the agenda at the weekend.

Sniper (4-1) returns to the ring for the first time since suffering his first professional loss against Kirk Garvey in March by tackling veteran Darren Snow (5-22) at London’s York Hall on Saturday night.

The fight was scheduled for April 14, but had to be pushed back due to a cut suffered by Smith against Garvey not healing in time.

And he admits he has been itching to get back to winning ways.

“It’s been hard to try and digest a defeat for the first time,” Sniper told The Wokingham Paper.

“But hopefully after this fight I’ll get back on track after getting back into the ring.

“It feels like I haven’t been in the ring for months, but it’s only been just over a month.

“We wanted to get back out there as soon as possible and get back in the mix for the Southern Area title and maybe the English title.”

Smith has often had to wait until the last moment to find out who his opponent would be, but a clash with Snow has been pencilled in for a few weeks.

Yorkshire’s Snow, 36, is a regular fighter with three bouts already in 2018, but he comes into the clash in Bethnal Green on the back of 11 straight defeats.

And while Sniper knows he will be heavy favourite, he is wary after being taken the distance by a similar opponent in Josef Obeslo last year.

“He does what he does, he’ll be there all night,” said Smith.

“He doesn’t get stopped regularly and it’s just about getting out there again really and under those lights.

“I think he’s a lot shorter than me, most opponents are. He’s strong in a way but I think if I stick to my boxing, I should make it easy enough.

“But in this game you don’t know what happens.

“I was supposed to make that other one easy against Josef, but I broke my hand and it was a hard fight then, you just don’t know.”

He added: “Between my last two fights there was almost a year. You obviously don’t plan that, but you do get ring rust.

“I think the main thing this year is just to keep busy, even just over four-round fights like this one.

“Hopefully it all goes well on Saturday and then move onto the next one.”