Chris Billam-Smith was once an unlikely world champion. Now he could prove himself the best cruiserweight on the planet bar none.
Billam-Smith fights rival champion Gilberto Ramirez in a WBO and WBA world cruiserweight title unification on Saturday night, live on Sky Sports.
The full bill starts from 5pm, live on Sky Sports Mixwith ringwalks for the main event expected at around 10pm.
Ramirez is a trailblazer in the sport. Mexico is a proud boxing nation, and he was the country’s first world champion, ever, at both super-middleweight and cruiserweight.
Bournemouth’s Billam-Smith was an unheralded amateur when he turned professional in 2017. Back then he wasn’t touted to even win domestic titles. But he went on to become a British, Commonwealth and European champion.
In the football stadium in his hometown, Billam-Smith toppled Lawrence Okolie to win the WBO belt and prove himself a worthy world champion.
Billam-Smith has progressed so far now, in fact, that after making successful defences against Mateusz Masternak and British rival Richard Riakporhe, he is pressing Jai Opetaia, the IBF titlist, for consideration as the best in the division.
“Unification would be phenomenal for me. Go back through the years and you see all those stages I’ve been through, I feel very privileged and happy to be in the position,” Billam-Smith told Sky Sports.
“I think Lawrence was always going to be hard because of the way he is and the way he fights. But I had the experience, and I knew what it was going to be like.
“Masternak, I looked at him, thinking ‘that’s going to be a hard fight’ because of the style. And I was still kind of in that transition phase, in a way, of trying to put everything I can do together in one performance, rather than just fighting one way for the whole fight, in every fight – using your tenacity, your work rate, and muscle your way through.”
The Briton reckons that, even at the age of 34, he is continuing to get better.
“I feel like I’ve really improved through the years and I’m a lot more content with where I’m at as a fighter,” he said.
“Against Richard I could have easily muscled my way through that fight. I could have done another 12 rounds at that pace that we were doing, I wasn’t tired at the end of the fight and needed holding up or anything.
“There’s still plenty of learning to go. This camp (for Ramirez) will bring more out of me, because he’s a southpaw, and he’s got a great work rate himself, good punch variety. Because he’s a southpaw, he comes from different angles. I’m going to have to adapt again, but it’s a challenge I’m looking forward to.”
This fight with Ramirez, a first world title unification for both, offers Billam-Smith just the motivation he needs at this point in his career.
“He’s got a belt – that’s what is appealing,” Billam-Smith said. “That is what I wanted, unifications.
“I could have a random voluntary defence against someone in the top 15. But I’m at the stage now where, although I haven’t had loads of fights, I need to get up for fights. Even the Richard fight, obviously I had loads of reasons to get up for it but the fact that it was at Selhurst (Park stadium) adds more.
“This fight, there’s another belt on the line and would make me the only unified cruiserweight champion at that point, the other two belts are with two other people.
“It would add another string to my bow claiming to be the No 1, which I believe I am. I think there’s lots of reasons to get up for this fight. It’s an exciting fight. It’s a new challenge.”
Where victory could lead
Billam-Smith does have an exit strategy. “I’ve got an idea of how many fights, I’ve got a few more years left. I’ve just turned 34, I’ve got a young family, I’m not getting any younger and stuff like that,” he said. “I might be world champion to some people, but my greatest honour is being a dad.
“That’s by far the thing I love most in life, is being a dad. So the fact that that the time with my son gets shortened is tough to take, tough to deal with.
“So plans for retirement started before the last fight, in terms of what I’d like to do, investments and stuff like that. But I still need these fights and you need the money for that reason, it’s a short career, and you need that money to work for you.”
A major showdown with Opetaia is high on his agenda for the near future.
“Ramirez next and then Opetaia after that, that would be my next two fights I would absolutely love,” he said.
He backs himself to beat anyone in the division, Opetaia included. “You can’t wait for Opetaia to just take the first four rounds off you,” Billam-Smith said.
“Or if you are doing that, you’ve got to keep them close and put a real dent in him, because then he’s really got to go to work.
“For now, all eyes on Ramirez, get that job done and then hopefully Opetaia.”
Watch Chris Billam-Smith’s world title unification with Gilberto Ramirez on Saturday live on Sky Sports Mix from 5pm
