Chris Billam-Smith is leaving it to his team to make his next move.
The former WBO cruiserweight champion from Bournemouth won the title against Lawrence Okolie but lost it to Gilberto Ramirez.
His only fight of 2025 was a points win over Brandon Glanton in April but as the year wound down the WBO invited purse bids for a bout with Germany’s Roman Fress.
Fress’ team, SES, won the bid with an offer of little over $150,000, while Billam-Smith’s promoter – Boxxer – who he was in contract with until the end of last year, did not bid.
But Billam-Smith has fought in big fights, against Okolie at the Vitality Stadium in Bournemouth, against Glanton at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and against Ramirez in Saudi Arabia. The idea of splitting $150,000 or so between him and Fress was not an attractive one, so Billam-Smith, trained by Shane McGuigan, moved on.
“We were trying to do a deal around the fight and it never came to fruition,” said the Bournemouth man. “And then it went to purse bids and then it got half the minimum amount and then it was a lot less money than I’m used to being paid, to be honest, to go to Germany to fight a fairly hard fight but against someone who nobody really knows. So the team sort of made some recommendations and it made sense from what they were saying and their recommendations, if you take a lower offer then you kind of set your worth at that offer. So, at the end of day, it’s a business and I let the businessmen in my team do that side of things and they said if we do that then this happens so I had to make an educated decision and hopefully it'll pay off.”
That decision means that Billam-Smith waits a little longer for action, but it has coincided with the addition of a second child with his family so he’s welcomed the break. It’s worth noting, too, that the lone loss on Fress’ 23-1- (13 KOs) record came to Armend Xhoxhaj who, in his next fight, was stopped in five rounds by the Englishman.
Billam-Smith is in the top eight of each of the four major sanctioning bodies, and as high as three with the IBF (held by Jai Opetaia) and four with the WBC (held by Noel Mikaelian).
Billam-Smith wants bouts that will lead him back to the top.
“To an extent, it’s got to be a fight that leads to something else,” he explained. “I don’t see the point in just taking a fight for the sake of taking a fight unless it can progress me somewhere, which is why I was very open to the Fress fight, because I would have been interim champion. It needs to lead somewhere. It needs to be a fight that leads on to something else or be a fight that makes sense for the fight after it. I think that’s at least got to be the case.”
In the current IBF ratings, No. 1 is Huseyin Cinkara – who Opetaia stopped last month, and the No. 2 spot is vacant. Then it’s Billam-Smith and Opetaia is a fight he would welcome. Cinkara had his moments, but was ultimately stopped – as Billam-Smith told BoxingScene would happen.
“Boxing at the level I’ve boxed at and seeing what I see I don’t think he [Opetaia]’s ever looked invincible,” said Billam-Smith. “I think he’s looked very very very good and no one could doubt his talent, but no one’s invincible and I think he’s shown that a few times. “David Nyika hurt him. He’s been hurt a few times. Cinkara obviously hurt him, but that fight was always gonna go like that. I spoke to [BoxingScene’s] Dec Warrington about it and he said, ‘Can you give me a prediction?’ I said, ‘It’s a four-round fight for Cinkara and after that I think Opetaia will stop him I think six to eight.’ [It was over in the eighth]. So you couldn’t get that much more spot on. But Cinkara’s a hard night for anyone. People look at his age and they look at these wins and stuff but he’s got freakish punch power and his style is really weird. He’s really awkward and he’s a bit wild, so he’s going to cause anyone problems and he caused Opetaia problems. That, to me, is kind of like I expected it to happen, so it’s not like, ‘Oh wow, maybe Opetaia can be beat.’ Of course he can be beat. He's a human being.”
Billam-Smith’s crowning moment, against Okolie in front of his own fans in Bournemouth, will not be topped, but Billam-Smith is hungry for more. He just needs to be ready for what’s next, even though he’s unsure what that might be.
“I honestly don’t know,” he replied, when asked what he hoped would be next. “In this game you've got to be like water, and just mould to your surroundings and be fluid and just be able to adapt to the situation and the environment you’re in. I think that’s kind of what I do. I just stick to what I can control and don’t get too hyped on personal preference and stuff like that. Even the Lawrence Okolie fight, he was fourth choice at the time in terms of the champions we wanted, so it was a wild situation and it turned out great. So I just adapt to the situation and I think you can really get in your own head if you try and get set on something in this business. I think it’s very important to keep your head down, to control what you control, and let the team do their stuff.”
