Adam Azim says watching compatriot Dalton Smith win the WBC junior welterweight title has lit a fire within him to follow in his domestic rival’s footsteps.

Britain’s two leading lights at 140 pounds have long been linked but it was Smith who became the first of them to become world champion as he stopped Subriel Matias in Brooklyn to claim the belt on Saturday night.

Azim (14-0, 11), who is five years Smith’s junior, fights former world title challenger Gustavo Daniel Lemos (30-2, 20 KOs) in the toughest test of his career to date on January 31. He knows a victory will keep him hot on the heels of Smith but a defeat will put a dent in the rivalry before it has even really started.

“This is the last step before I get to that world title level,” Azim said. “And if I can do a job on Lemos then it shows I’m ready. I will have proven that.

“Seeing Dalton do that added some fire to my belly. He’s world champion now. I’m like ‘wow, he’s a world champion now!’ I want to become world champion and be known for that, he’s just done it, he has that in his book, that’s his legacy. He’s got that now.

“It's great news for me that he won the belt as the fight's getting bigger. If I win a world title, we'd have a massive unification in Britain. Winning the established world title as well, the WBC, is a big thing. Right now I want the IBF.”

Azim, currently ranked at No. 8 by The Ring, sits at five in the IBF’s rankings while Lemos is No. 9. Richardson Hitchins is the IBF champion and Azim is hoping to set up a shot at the belt in 2026 with a victory at London’s Copper Box at the end of the month. Then, once he has a belt of his own, he and Smith can meet in a unification clash to match some of Britain’s all-time best grudge matches.

He said: “It’s a bit like Carl Frampton against Scott Quigg or Amir Khan against Kell Brook, Conor Benn versus Chris Eubank Jr., even Nigel Benn against Chris Eubank Sr. Me against Dalton Smith is the next one up.

“If I'm a world champion and he's already a world champion the fight would be bigger, the stakes would be higher and everything would be great.”

In the immediate aftermath of his stunning victory over Matias, new champion Smith said that any would-be challengers would need to ‘earn their stripes’ before they would be granted a crack at his belt.

Azim said: “He's probably aiming that line at me, but I'm still young. He's, what, 29 or 30 years old. I'm still 23 so I've got plenty of time in my career. Like, he's done that at 29, 30, imagine me doing that earlier in my career. I've still got a lot of years in front of me.”