Bulldogs 2016 premiership winner Clay ‘Showtime’ Smith making a sporting comeback as a professional boxer

Clay Smith was down and out. Forced to retire at 25 due to injury, the ex-AFL star turned to driving forklifts. Now ‘Showtime’ is launching a comeback as a professional boxer.

Former Western Bulldogs star Clay Smith is making his professional comeback as a boxed. Picture: AAP

He was the AFL star who bravely overcame three knee reconstructions to help the Western Bulldogs break a 62-year premiership drought.

Now Clay Smith is making a comeback to top-level sport – as a professional boxer.

Smith will make his professional fight debut in Melbourne before Christmas, five years after retiring from the AFL at age 25 due to an injury battle that left him physically and emotionally broken.

However, the fight game has ignited the second athletic coming of “Showtime” Smith.

Former Bulldogs premiership winner Clay Smith is making his pro boxing debut in December.

The gutsy forward, who was a member of the Bulldogs’ 2016 premiership win, has morphed into a 30-year-old super middleweight and is primed to knock out Matthew “Astro Boy” Erceg in his pro boxing baptism on Saturday, December 9.

Smith’s sporting Everest was playing before 99,981 fans at the MCG in the 2016 decider. He kicked a goal and had 13 disposals in the trenches with his Bulldogs teammates.

However, when he walks into the ring at The Melbourne Pavilion, Showtime will be all alone.

“I’ve decided to turn pro and I’ll see where it goes,” Smith said.

“In the boxing ring, you can’t really stuff up. In a game of footy, you can make a mistake and you or your teammate makes up for it, but in boxing it’s just you in there and every mistake is magnified.

“If you make one error, you can get knocked out and it’s all over.

“When I was at the Bulldogs, we had a boxing coach who took us once a week, so I always enjoyed it.

“I have always loved the competitive side to footy and the harder edge to it. Boxing was another way I could train.

Smith (right) celebrates the Bulldogs’ 2016 premiership defeat of the Swans.

“I had to give up footy at an earlier age than I would have liked and I needed to keep my competitive juices flowing, so I turned to boxing.”

Smith, who played at 85kg during his seven seasons at the Bulldogs from 2012-18, will face Erceg (0-1) at an 80kg catchweight but he eventually plans to fight at super middleweight, which has a limit of 76kg.

The Gippsland Power product has a perfect 3-0 record as an amateur and has been training with Team Ellis Boxing alongside Michael Zerafa, Australia’s No.1 middleweight who is on the cusp of a shot at a world title.

Other prominent sporting stars dabbling in boxing at the Keilor East gym include AFLW star Tayla Harris and 131kg Melbourne Storm enforcer Nelson Asofa-Solomona, who made his fight debut last Saturday week.

Trained by Tai Tuiniua at Team Ellis, Smith is under no illusions about the hard slog ahead and plans to fight the way he played on the AFL field.

“Boxing is as hard as it looks but it’s rewarding at the same time,” said Smith, who kicked 43 goals in 55 games for the Bulldogs.

Boxing has been Smith’s sporting salvation after his mental battle following early retirement from the AFL at age 25.

“I got into it for the fitness, not the fighting, but then I was approached to have my first fight four or five years ago and I thought ‘why not?’

“I’m new to the game. A lot of people start boxing at a very young age but, turning pro now, I have a lot to learn and the boys at the Team Ellis gym are sensational.

“My nickname will be Showtime. My last two fights I’ve had have been first-round knockouts. I don’t tend to use up all the rounds I am given.

“In boxing you don’t get paid overtime, so you go in, get the job done and get out.”

Smith will never forget the pain of July 9, 2018, the day he conceded defeat to chronic injuries and announced his AFL retirement at an age when most players are at their zenith.

For the past five years, he has been a blue-collar former Bulldog who drives forklifts on the Metro Tunnel project, but his conversion to boxing has helped ease the disappointment of his AFL career being derailed.

“It was one of the hardest things I went through,” Smith said.

“I experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.

“I spent nearly four years of my seven-year career on the sideline watching blokes do what I love but I also got to experience four of the best weeks of my life in that finals series and I got to hold up the premiership cup and I have a medal.

“I look back at it now happily and I didn’t for a long time because I finished earlier than what I would have liked, but some people never get the chance to play in an AFL grand final.

“I’m still involved with the club. I get down there and see the boys, so the Bulldogs are a big part of my life. They shaped who I am now and probably what I am doing now.

Smith underwent three knee reconstructions during his turbulent AFL career.

“I love to train, to work hard and I like to compete. I’ve always hated losing.”

Just about every pro boxer dreams of winning a world title. Smith isn’t getting carried away and will settle for some knockouts to get the ball rolling.

“There’s not a lot of fancy footwork from me,” he said. “I’m sort of stand and deliver.

“I don’t mind going toe-to-toe with someone but I want to learn the craft and I’m learning to move my head a bit more, so I’m not eating as many shots as I give.

“My punches seem to hit harder than my opponents’ do and they end up on their back and I don’t.

“Hopefully it stays that way.”

Originally published as Bulldogs 2016 premiership winner Clay ‘Showtime’ Smith making a sporting comeback as a professional boxer