It shouldn’t be a surprise that Chris Billam-Smith has fallen lower in the WBO’s cruiserweight rankings.
No, Billam-Smith, 21-2 (13 KOs), hasn’t lost a fight recently – at least not since he dropped the WBO title to Gilberto Ramirez in a unification bout about a year ago.
But he was granted an opportunity to potentially earn another shot at Ramirez, with the WBO ordering Billam-Smith to face Roman Fress in an interim title bout. Fress’ team was the sole bidder, coming in at $156,921, and Billam-Smith’s team failed to respond to confirm that they would move forward with the bout, according to a report at the time by BoxingScene’s Jake Donovan.
Now, with the WBO’s monthly ratings update released on November 20, Fress, 23-1 (13 KOs), has moved up from second to first, replacing Billam-Smith, who is now all the way down in the fifth slot.
Who will face Fress next instead depends on who is available from the list of contenders. The WBO’s ratings now read Fress, Umar Salamov, Tahir Kahrovic, Robin Sirwan Safar, Billam-Smith, Mike Perez, Mateusz Masternak, David Nyika, Leonardo Mosquea, Brandon Glanton, Yuniel Dorticos, Fabio Turchi, Ryan Rozicki, Yamil Peralta and Viddal Riley.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
