Cruiserweight Chris Billam-Smith says he was pleased with his win over Brandon Glanton, but he admits he did not stick around to watch the main event between Chris Eubank Jnr and Conor Benn.
Billam-Smith, of Bournemouth, England, was rebounding from losing his WBO title in a unification bout to WBA titleholder Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, and Glanton was tipped in some quarters to cause an upset in London.
But Billam-Smith controlled much of the action and earned the late rounds, too, despite the bad blood beforehand when Glanton had talked about inflicting brain damage on the Englishman.
“I think people who knew boxing knew it was a dangerous fight,” said Billam-Smith. “Especially coming off the back of the Ramirez fight. It was a fight where I had to win … but there can be a lull after a loss. And there was in terms of, I feel like through camp, it was really difficult being away from family, going from headlining show after show after show to being first on the card and all those things … no title on the line.”
Billam-Smith said he left the ring feeling “pretty comfortable,” and the idea was to improve on his WBC ranking in a bid to position himself to fight Badou Jack.
“I didn’t need to go and try and knock him out or anything like that,” said Billam-Smith. “I just knew how tough he was, just had to be smart and get the win.”
Commentators analyzing the fight thought Billam-Smith began to look fatigued, but he has always had a good engine and has gone 12 rounds in seven of his past 10 fights. He might appear fatigued in there, but his tank is far from dry.
“I think it might be the case,” he said. “But it’s funny how most of the time my opponents … it’s not like they can ever capitalize on me looking tired.
“I put a lot into the early rounds of every fight, but it also takes a huge amount out of my opponents. And that’s what I feel like I did in the Glanton fight, especially because the body work I did early on was telling later on in the fight. He knew he was down on the cards and he wasn’t able to go, go, go, go, go and try and knock me out.
“Whereas, if I was in his position, I would have tried to push it and tried everything. And it was never, ‘I need to find a way to change something up.’ ‘I need to do something and find a big shot to change, swing this fight in my direction.’ There was never that. I think that due to the work I did early on in the fight, the body work was really good and that was always the key determining factor in this fight. I had to hurt him to the body and tire him out to the body. They might not physically hurt him. He might say they didn’t hurt, but they still take a huge amount out of you.”
Because Billam-Smith and Glanton boxed first, Tottenham’s soccer stadium was a long way from capacity. But walking out to a sea of chairs was not new for Billam-Smith, who fought through the pandemic and once even walked out to an arena with no fans, no song and barely even a ringwalk of note.
“I can deal with those situations because it’s the same for everyone,” he said. “I mean, it would have been interesting to see how Brandon would be in the BIC [Bournemouth International Centre, a Billam-Smith fortress that holds some 3,000 fans], for example, against me, because that’s a different atmosphere. That’s a different feeling, because the intensity of that place just ramps everything up.”
Family guy Billam-Smith is expecting his second child later this year. He has found being in camp in London increasingly challenging, with his wife, Mia, and toddler son, Frank, at home.
It was because of them he left the Tottenham stadium without staying back to watch Eubank-Benn.
“I wanted to get home and get home and not lose the Sunday,” he said. “I went back to the hotel, had some dinner and then I drove back to Bournemouth. I was on the M25 when it was on. I was listening to the commentary ‘cause my wife was watching it on her phone and [stablemate] Lee [Cutler] was in the back of a car and he was watching it. People said, ‘You must regret that.’ But when you actually look at the fight – and, yes, the fight as a whole was phenomenal – but when you look at what that fight, [what it] sort of symbolized was, like, dads and their sons really, wasn’t it? And that’s why I was going home, because I get to spend the rest of the Sunday with my son. He was so happy to see me the next day, and … he was at a friend's house. We went round there, he was in the garden and he ran across the garden and gave me the biggest cuddle ever. It was worth it.
“And they are the moments that really matter to me in life. I’ll never ever forget that. As good a fight as it was, I know it was very apt that the night became about fathers and their sons. And the reason I missed it was because I wanted to go and see mine.”
Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, is on The Ring ratings panel and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.
