He said: "I was doing other daft stuff, like getting brought home by police, smashing windows, fighting on the streets and other little silly things that lead up to going off the rails.
[5] Smith made his professional debut at light-middleweight on 10 October 2008 against Duncan Cottier at the Everton Park Sports Centre, Liverpool.
This was part of a stacked card by Queensberry Promotions which also had future world titlists such as Nathan Cleverly, Anthony Crolla, Tony Bellew as well as Smith's older brother Stephen.
[9] After a 6-month gap, Smith returned to his hometown of Liverpool to defeat journeyman Max Maxwell on points over six rounds.
Smith won via twelve round unanimous decision on all scorecards (116–113, 117–112 twice) to win the vacant British light-middleweight title.
In July 2014, Smith defended the title again, this time winning by way of knockout against Jason Welborn (15–2, 16 KOs) in round 6.
[11] On 25 October 2014, Smith beat Zoltan Sera (16–2, 10 KOs) at the Echo Arena in Liverpool for the vacant WBA Continental light-middleweight title.
A month later in April, Smith fought and defeated David Ezequiel Romero via seventh-round TKO to win the vacant WBO Inter-Continental light-middleweight title.
[13] It was announced in August 2015 that Smith would fight John Thompson (17–1, 6 KOs) for the WBO light-middleweight title, left vacant by Demetrius Andrade.
Smith was initially supposed to fight Frenchman Michel Soro, only for an internal issue with promoters Top Rank to force him out.
By the time the sixth round came, Smith, was on the rise after a few well-placed jabs and produced the decisive punch in the seventh, causing the referee to wave the fight in his favour.
[15] On 19 December 2015, Smith returned to the Manchester Arena on the undercard of Andy Lee vs. Billy Joe Saunders WBO middleweight title fight.
[16] On 9 May 2016, Smith announced he would defend his WBO title against Predrag Radosevic (30–1, 11 KOs) at the Echo Arena on 4 June.
[18] On 24 June 2016, it was announced that Smith would make the third defence of his world title against Mexican Canelo Álvarez (47–1–1, 33 KOs) on 17 September in the main event on an HBO PPV card.
[21][22][23] In January 2017, negotiations began for a fight between Smith and 24 year old fellow Brit Liam Williams (16–0–1, 11 KOs), who were said to be long standing rivals, to take place on 8 April 2017.
[37][38] Due to both boxers not willing to give away home advantage, Warren confirmed the fight would take in Newcastle at the Metro Radio Arena.
[39] Due to the announcement of Anthony Joshua's defence of his world titles against mandatory challenger Carlos Takam, Frank Warren pushed the fight back to take place on 11 November 2017.
considered a controversial decision, Smith defeated Williams after taking him the twelve round distance for the first time in his career.
[45] On 2 December 2017, welterweight contender Sadam Ali defeated Miguel Cotto, winning the WBO light middleweight title in the process.
There were reports suggesting the fight would take place on the Canelo Álvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin II card, however Warren made no mention of this.
[49][50][51] Mexican prospect Jaime Munguia (29–0, 25 KO's) replaced Smith, stopping Ali in round 4 and winning the WBO title.
[52] On 21 May 2018, Frank Warren stated a deal was being put together for Mungiua to make his first title defence against Smith, possibly in the U.S.[53] A month later, the fight was confirmed to take place on 21 July 2018, at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
[56] In the fight, televised by HBO's Boxing After Dark, in front of a small crowd of 2,470, Smith took advantage of Munguia's defense at first, having success with his right hand.
As the fight progressed, Munguia adapted and managed to land a clean left hook to the head, dropping Smith.
Smith was hurt but managed to stay active throughout the rest of the bout, lasting the twelve round distance.
Munguia won a unanimous decision with the scorecards reading 116–111, 119–108, 117–110, with boxing critics praising Smith for his toughness in a crowd-pleasing bout.
[60] On 24 August 2019, Smith beat Mario Alberto Lozano (33–10, 24 KO) by seventh-round TKO on the undercard of the WBC super-flyweight title fight between Juan Francisco Estrada and Dewayne Beamon in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico.
Smith repeatedly hurt Garcia with some good body work, for which he earned a wide unanimous decision victory on the scorecards, 99–91 twice and 98–92.
[62] In his next fight, Smith fought Magomed Kurbanov, ranked #5 by the WBO and WBA and #15 by the IBF at super welterweight, in Russia.