BOXING trainer Paddy Fitzpatrick has hailed Sam Smith’s ability to ‘learn from every fight’ after he bounced back from a crushing defeat at the end of last year to record his second win in a row at last weekend’s Fight Town 1 show.

Smith, often referred to as ‘sniper’ due to his lightning fast jab shots, defeated Harry Matthews via a points decision on Saturday night, four months after his second-round stoppage against Shakan Pitters at the O2.

The Swindon-resident went on to record a victory at the ‘Kings of the ring’ show a few weeks later before he continued his upward trajectory, in terms of form, at the Oasis Leisure Centre last weekend.

Smith’s trainer, Fitzpatrick continues to be impressed at the 26-year-old’s thirst for knowledge and his desire to improve himself as a boxer.

Fitzpatrick said: “In the space of nine fights, he’s crammed a lot in, he’s got a lot of experience and he’s believing a lot more.

“He always believed in himself as a fighter, but he’s believing he can box better now.

“He learns a lot from every fight, but some guys don’t do that, they don’t want to think about the defeats, but he actually learned a lot because he realised that he was performing well in those fights.”

Both Smith and most recent opponent, Matthews weighed in at 176 pounds ahead of their bout last weekend and Fitzpatrick admitted it is difficult to find his man a fight in the correct weight category.

But far from using it as an excuse, Fitzpatrick believes Smith is learning more from his variation of fights and it will serve him well in the long run.

Fitzpatrick said: “His family are all big men. When he turned pro, he was a little bit heavier than super middleweight and a bit lighter than light heavyweight and I said, ‘let’s fight at light heavy because I don’t want to be getting you to make super middle when you’re only 21’.

“I said, ‘you’re obviously going to grow into these beasts here, your family are all big men, so I don’t want to be holding you back.’

“But it must not be in him, he must be the skinny one in the family because three years later, he still weighs in two pounds under light heavyweight and the problem is, he’s fighting cruiserweights.

“Now, we moved him down to super middle, he weighs in two pounds over the supermiddleweight limit and the other dude comes in a pound over the light heavyweight limit, so he’s in at cruiserweight.

“He has a lot of experience for a dude who’s only 7-2.

“He was in that ultimate boxxer thing, he’s fought for a Southern title over 10 rounds, he’s fought good men, he fought (Shakan) Pitters, who is a cruiserweight that came down to light heavy and (Kirk) Garvey, who is a good fighter at light heavy that no one wanted to face him, that’s why the board said ‘well you face him then.’”