Dalton Smith has made numerous sacrifices since becoming a boxer. They include nights out with friends, holidays abroad, and forgoing all the other indulgences young men in his home city of Sheffield regard as rites of passage in their transition from youth to adulthood. But arguably the greatest concession of them all has been deeply personal. So deep in fact that, before Saturday's pivotal bout against Mathieu Germain, the 27-year-old reveals it involves his own sense of self and bond with his father and trainer, Grant.

"Boxing is a sport that completely takes over your identity. I've been doing it since I was six and I'm labelled as a fighter," Smith says. "Every fighter will only be able to tell you who they really are when their career is over. I'm talking about the person, not the fighter. You can't really know who you are as a person, what you're all about, until you give it all up and decide to do something else. Right now, all I know about me is what I'm like as a fighter. And to be honest, that's the only thing I need to know at this stage of my life."

Smith, who has already claimed the British, Commonwealth, and European crowns, faces the visitor from Canada at the Canon Medical Arena in Sheffield this weekend. The venue is located only a short walk away from the gym where, under the watchful eye of Grant, Smith has chosen to give up another aspect of his life in order to pursue greatness.

"I won't have my dad as just my dad until the day I retire," he admits. "We can't have the kind of relationship we'd love to have until I stop fighting. We can't view ourselves as father and son. We have to see ourselves as boxer and coach because I'm a fighter, I'm a warrior, and I have to prepare to go to war. We can't have the attachments we'd like to have until I stop. It's not easy. It's far from easy in fact, but I wouldn't have it any other way because being a fighter has given me the kind of opportunities that I'd never have been able to have in another career."

Although Smith's comments reveal why he describes boxing as "the loneliest sport of all", he insists it would be a mistake to interpret them as a plea for sympathy. When he eventually embarks upon that voyage of self-discovery, Smith hopes to have added the WBC light-welterweight belt to his list of titles. Ranked as the number one challenger to champion Alberto Puello, beating Germain would not only stretch Smith's unblemished professional record to 18-0, but it would also virtually guarantee a shot at the Dominican before Christmas.

Choosing to chase dreams together might have cost them a conventional relationship. But by doing so, Smith explains, he and Grant have proven how much they care for one another. "It shows the love we share that we're prepared to park being father and son, in the way other people might view that, until I give up," he adds. "Actually, because of the position we're in, I look at us as more than just father and son. Don't get me wrong, it can be hard at times. Me and my dad, we can have some of the biggest fall-outs in the gym, but when we have success together, when we know how we've had to sacrifice aspects of our relationship, that just feels so special. I've got full trust in him. Absolute trust."

Having recovered from an injury which kept him out of action for nearly a year, Smith celebrated his return to the ring in January by demolishing Walid Ouizza inside a round. That contest was for the European strap which he later relinquished. Despite having a complicated relationship with his father, Smith says the gym and his training partners still give him the feeling of a "family" set-up.

"We have the biggest rows in there and the biggest love. That's what families are though - being able to have arguments and still share that love," Smith says. "I'm not changing something that's got me this far. Dad knows me better than anyone. He probably knows me better than myself because he's seen me in so many situations inside and outside of the ropes too. In fact, if you want to know who I really am then you'd probably be best off asking him."