The team surrounding cruiserweight contender Roman Fress found a way to level the playing field.
SES Boxing has secured the rights to an ordered WBO interim 200lbs title fight between Fress and former full titleholder Chris Billam-Smith. A second purse bid hearing held Thursday was won by Germany-based SES Boxing, which submitted $156,921 as the session’s lone participant.
“Now we finally have the important and necessary planning security,” SES founder Ulf Steinforth told BoxingScene. “Roman Fress can secure the world championship belt in Germany – it's his 'home game,' and so a major world championship fight will finally be held in Germany for the first time in a long time.
“We will now finalize the plans and announce the date and venue soon. This will be an important mega-event for German boxing.”
The working date for the bout is January 14. The suggested host cities in Germany are Vechta and Magdeburg, the latter serving as the home base for SES Boxing and also Fress’ current hometown.
That’s if the fight moves forward.
Billam-Smith, 21-2 (13 KOs), will get the favorable end of a 60-40 split for what would mark his second career fight outside the UK. However, it still leaves the fighting pride of Bournemouth, England, with a payday of just over $94,000 for a secondary title fight on the road.
That said, Billam-Smith and BOXXER had the opportunity to bail on the fight after the first scheduled purse bid failed to produce a single participant. It was then unanimously voted by the WBO Championship Committee to lower the minimum bid by 50 per cent to $150,000.
By that point, it was up to either participant to inform the sanctioning body if they were no longer interested in moving forward with the ordered fight.
Should the fight take place, the winner will become the WBO mandatory challenger to unified 200lbs titlist Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez.
The WBO normally refrains from interim titles save for extreme circumstances. The need arose in this case as Mexico’s Ramirez, 48-1 (30 KOs), is sidelined while he continues to recovery from shoulder surgery earlier this summer.
Billam-Smith – known as “CBS” in boxing circles – lost his WBO title to Ramirez in their unification bout last November 16 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The setback ended his title reign just shy of 17 months after a May 2023 upset win over Lawrence Okolie at home in Bournemouth.
His two successful title defenses included a June 2024 victory over unbeaten Richard Riakporhe to avenge what was then his lone career defeat.
Billam-Smith’s only fight since the end of his title reign came earlier this year. He outpointed Brandon Glanton over 12 rounds on the April 26 Chris Eubank Jnr-Conor Benn undercard in North London.
Fress has every intention of taking on what will mark by far the toughest test of his career.
The Kazakhstan-born Fress has won seven fights in a row since a May 2022 split decision defeat to Armend Xhoxhaj. His most recent victory came in a 10-round unanimous decision over Michael Seitz on May 17 in Magdeburg, a show that commemorated SES Boxing’s 25th anniversary.
