LONDON, England - It is now almost 10 years ago since red-hot favourite Mitchell Smith first looked across the ring at George Jupp.

Southern Area champion Jupp, most thought, would be another victim for the hard-punching Smith on his journey towards the very top of the sport.

Rewind a decade, to September 2015, and ask any British boxing fan for a list of the most promising talents in the country and you could almost guarantee that Smith would feature on them all.

A knockout of Dennis Tubieron in the July of that year moved Smith to 13-0, 7 KOs and, at 24, the sky was the limit for the kid from Harrow. He was named Young Boxer of the Year by the Boxing Writers’ Club, which placed him on a prestigious list with the likes of Randolph Turpin, Naseem Hamed, Ricky Hatton and Amir Khan as fellow winners.

Few who voted for Smith, or much less the super-featherweight himself, would have ever predicted how the next 10 years would unfold.

In December 2015, as part of Frank Warren’s ‘Christmas Cracker’ card headlined by Andy Lee’s middleweight title defence against Billy Joe Saunders, Smith was set to face Jupp. With three wins already that year, it was supposed to be the chance for the young hotshot to cap a memorable 12 months before pressing on towards a world title shot in 2016.

Jupp, of course, did not read that script, beating an under-prepared and weight-drained Smith handily on points over 10. The loser did not box again for another 10 months as things began to unravel, and fast.

“The last 10 years,” Smith says before trailing off in search of the right words. “Have been crazy.

“There has been a lot of growing up, there have been some terrible, terrible lows, and that’s just outside of boxing. I’ve had three prison sentences and at one point I was up to 110 kilos. I was just a fat bloke.

“But I thought ‘this needs to stop, man’. Obviously I know I was in a bad rut anyway and my lifestyle and mental health was in a terrible place. As you can imagine, for someone to allow themselves to get into that sort of shape and allow their life to reach that point, it shows that they are suffering a bit.

“What I’ve had to do to get myself back to where I am today; I’ve lost 58 kilos all in all and I’ve overcome those three prison sentences. I’ve had battles with drink and drugs and I’ve lost my kids. I reached the bottom.”

Mitchell boxed twice in the 18 months following the Jupp defeat before a boxing hiatus that lasted five years and one day. He returned on May 21, 2022 with a win over 3-19 Petar Aleksandrov at Woodside Leisure Centre, Watford. He weighed 149.5 pounds.

Another 17 months out of the ring would follow before another comeback, this time against the overmatched Ryan Frost who he beat on points over four rounds. Then, four months later, weighing 139.5 pounds, Smith beat well-known Nicaraguan journeyman Cristian Narvaez over six at York Hall, Bethnal Green.

Now, without a meaningful test since Jupp in 2015, Smith is desperate for what he describes a ‘a proper fight’ and you can hear every ounce of the frustration in his voice as he speaks. He returns to the ring at York Hall on September 27 but at the time of writing there is no opponent.

Now happy to operate anywhere around the 140 pound mark, Smith was scheduled to face 12-1 Mace Ruegg. "Proper fight," Smith says, before the Bournemouth man withdrew with a bicep injury. Then, as reported by The Ring, Jordan Flynn was offered the fight but he turned it down.

“I got a message the other day from a very well known person in boxing,” Smith says. “He said that my problem is that I’m too good for these lads. I think that hits the nail on the head. I’m too much of a threat for these lads.

“Say your boxer is 24, 25, 26, you’re not going to put them in with someone like me because I want to rip your head off. I’m not here to just roll over and it has been a while but people remember what I was like all those years ago.

“I was miles off it at one point, 110 kilos, now I’m back to where I am today and all I’m asking for is an opportunity. Why not let people see a proper ding-dong, get me on, let me have a go with whoever you want to throw at me.

“It’s not like things can get any worse for me right now, I’ve tried so many people, but once I chin someone maybe it will catapult me into somebody’s line of sight and then who knows where it goes from there.”

Smith speaks to The Ring in between his work at Luton Metal Recycling, where he works long hours to make ends meet while he continues to keep the embers of his boxing career alive in whatever downtime he has.

A fight with Archie Sharp had been discussed for a potential spot on the October 25 card headlined by Joseph Parker’s clash with Fabio Wardley. That opportunity, however, did not materialise in the end but Sharp has been mentioned as a possible opponent for a December fight should all go well for Smith on September 27.

October 25 proved to be the latest in a long line of false dawns for Smith, who feels like a man on the brink. Either he will decide the toil is no longer worth it, or he will land a big fight to ensure his once promising career still finishes on a high.

“Everything I wanted to accomplish in terms of my boxing has not materialised,” he adds. “It’s disheartening when I know how hard I’ve had to work to get where I am now. When I say blood, sweat and tears, I mean I broke my nose twice in sparring just getting fit again.

“I have bad days where I’m suffering, I don’t want to go to the gym and I’m tired but then I look at my kids. I promised them I’d get it right for them and I’m just not getting that chance. I’d like to be able to prove myself and I haven’t given up hope yet.

“Even if I get one last chance and I come up short, it is what it is. I gave it my best shot but I’d like the opportunity to show the boxing public what I’ve got left. I’m still as hungry as ever.”

Finally, 34-year-old Smith is asked to try and sum up the last decade of his life, a 10-year spell which could have delivered so much but was instead punctuated by struggle. “How dare you finish on such a low,” Smith says, only half joking.

“Overall, I struggled to understand myself, I think. I went from a typical council kid with no money, nothing, to then having everything at my feet and blowing the opportunity up the wall. I then have to live with the regret, I suppose, that it only falls on me. We have our demons, and it will probably be one that lives with me forever.

“This is probably the reason why I want to try and get myself another chance because if I have to finish my career simply due to not getting any more opportunities, then obviously I only have myself to blame.

“Even if I get beaten at domestic level against one of the names mentioned, I’d like to be able to say to myself I did come back, I gave it my all one last time and maybe it was just a little bit too late. I feel like I owe that to myself.

“And, who knows? Maybe I could live with that."