Shane McGuigan says Adam Azim is yet to face Dalton Smith in their anticipated Battle of Britain because of ‘purely monetary reasons’.

The pair looked certain to clash last year when Azim was European champion and Smith was mandated for a shot at the belt but the Slough man instead decided to vacate the belt.

The 140lb duo have both continued to win since then and Smith is now next in line for a shot at the WBC champion Alberto Puello, who beat Sandor Martin via split decision to retain the belt earlier this month.

Smith’s next fight is expected to be announced on Friday and it will not be against Puello, or Azim for that matter. But The Ring understands Smith and Puello are likely to meet later this year.

Azim, meanwhile, is currently observing Ramadan and will get back into full camp once that finishes on March 30 with a return to the ring pencilled in for May.

But his coach McGuigan is happy to admit that neither Azim or Smith are quite big enough names yet to generate the sort of money that a fight like that deserves.

He told The Ring: “I genuinely know Adam beats Dalton Smith. There is no fear there at all - it is purely monetary reasons. If someone wants to put up a load of money then great we will take it right now but if someone doesn’t want to do that, instead want Eddie Hearn to slag me off and me slag him off, because the two fighters are respectful, that’s not where boxing should be.

“Adam Azim has phenomenal ability and is an amazing fighter, Dalton Smith is a very good fighter with world class potential. The fight sells itself but right now it doesn’t because nobody knows who the pair of them are in the grand scheme of things.

“Adam is getting good traction but it’s still not selling enough tickets. Dalton is the same, they brought his last fight out of Sheffield and across to Nottingham because he’s not doing crazy numbers. Until they both can do good numbers it doesn’t make sense.”

When it is put to McGuigan that a fight with Smith might move further away once the Sheffield man wins a world title, the trainer disagrees.

“I don’t think it will be a difficult fight to make once Dalton wins a world title,” he says. “Because I think he genuinely wants it as well. I think he knows it’s the highest profile fight out there for him.

“I think Dalton beats Puello. I think Dalton will win a world title. What better way to do Adam against Dalton than either a unification or with a world title on the line?”