Eddie Hearn has revealed he pushed hard to get Dalton Smith his WBC junior-welterweight title shot against Alberto Puello on The Ring's July 12 card.

Smith (18-0, 13 KOs), has already fought twice this year after missing much of 2024 with a shoulder injury, and he's now sitting pretty as the WBC's No. 1 140-pound contender.

The 28-year-old, who is also ranked No. 10 with The Ring in his division, iced Walid Ouizza in a round back in January before dominating Mathieu Germain over 12 last month in his home city.

Smith is now the mandatory for Dominican Puello (24-0, 10 KOs), who won a razor-thin decision over Sandor Martin in his last encounter on the Gervonta Davis-Lamont Roach card in March.

Puello, however, is allowed to make one voluntary defence before he faces his mandated challenger in Smith, and that fight comes in the form of Subriel Matias (22-2, 22 KOs).

Matias, the former IBF 140-pound champion, last fought in a two-round demolition job against Roberto Ramirez last November, but on The Ring's July 12 event in New York City, he'll get his chance to earn world honours once again.

Hearn tried his best to get Smith on that card against Puello, but was ultimately overruled by Turki Alalshikh, head of Riyadh Season and chairman of the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia.

"Yeah, I was actually speaking to Luis de Cubas before," Hearn told The Ring. "We were pushing to get the Dalton Smith fight on July 12. But His Excellency liked the Subriel Matias fight, so [they] went with that fight.

"But that's okay. It's coming up and we know we've got the winner. Dalton's had two fights already this year and two hard camps, so he'll probably rest up now until September or October."

A fight between Smith and Brit rival Adam Azim (13-0, 10 KOs) has also been mooted, but Hearn admits it's more likely his man waits it out for the winner of Puello-Matias.

He also revealed Azim's handlers tried to get the 22-year-old on the July 12 show as well.

The Matchroom Boxing chief added: "Probably not [going to fight Azim in the interim], but to be honest, we've also got a world title shot in the palm of our hands.

"I like the Azim fight. I think it's a good fight, but they've got nowhere to go. They were trying to get the Puello fight as well on the July 12 [card] too.

"Now they haven't got that and they're not mandatory. I think they're the IBO champions? So they're not even in a governing body. I wouldn't rule it out, but obviously our focus is on fighting for the world title."

Azim is expected to return to action this summer after he stopped Sergey Lipinets in nine rounds at the beginning of February.

The Ring's July 12 show will be co-headlined by Edgar Berlanga-Hamzah Sheeraz and Shakur Stevenson-William Zepeda, while David Morrell faces Imam Khataev in the card's fourth and final bout.