Chris Billam-Smith expects to be in ‘one of the best fights the cruiserweight division’s ever seen’ next | Boxing News

Chris Billam-Smith, the WBO cruiserweight world champion, is not any stranger to thrilling fights.

His battles with Isaac Chamberlain and Armend Xhoxhaj had been two of the perfect contests of final 12 months and he thinks his conflict with Mateusz Masternak on Sunday, December 10 will high something he is achieved to date.

Actually, he believes it would high something seen earlier than in his weight class.

“It makes stylistically for probably top-of-the-line fights the cruiserweight division has ever seen and that is saying one thing,” Billam-Smith advised Sky Sports activities. “As a result of the best way we each struggle is thrilling.

“We’re very comparable. We’re each powerful. Put our pictures collectively nicely. We are able to each punch. We have good chins.

“He is one of the skilled fighters possibly I am going to ever face as a result of he is boxed each model. He is boxed at such a excessive stage,” Billam-Smith defined.

“He is had extra knockouts than I’ve had fights. It is a massively harmful struggle. However I am a world champion. I’ve bought to go in there with that confidence and perception, which I all the time have, and go and do what I do and struggle my struggle.”

Billam-Smith subsequently expects this struggle with Masternak on the Bournemouth Worldwide Centre, dwell on Sky Sports activities, to be extra demanding than his world title-winning effort in opposition to Lawrence Okolie on the Vitality Stadium final trip.

“For me it is my hardest take a look at,” the champion stated. “I am anticipating that and I am getting ready for that as a result of that is the kind of fighter he’s. You put together for something lower than that in opposition to Masternak, you are doing him an injustice, you are doing your self an injustice.”

Billam-Smith is a goal, as a result of different fighters see him as a champion who could possibly be weak. However the 33-year-old guarantees he’s far tougher to defeat than some would possibly suppose.

“I am not a slickster. I am no Floyd Mayweather. However what I do could be very, very efficient and underrated,” he stated.

He makes his first defence in opposition to Masternak. It is a struggle Billam-Smith is extremely motivated to win, not simply because it’s one other return to his hometown.

“I am terrified of being a flash within the pan. I do not wish to be that one-hit marvel,” he stated. “I wish to cement my stature as a world champion and ultimately transfer on to unifications and big fights.”

Okolie looking for revenge

Billam-Smith additionally reckons he might make a rematch with Okolie thrilling. Their first struggle was marred by clinching however illuminated by the sequence of knockdowns Billam-Smith scored over the course of 12 rounds.

“I anticipate Lawrence to be loads higher second time spherical. I anticipate him to make enhancements. That is the form of man he’s. He goes away and he works on issues and I anticipate him to return again with extra motivation,” the brand new champion stated.

Okolie, he believes, will change his model and tidy up his work. “Now he has been overwhelmed he has to try this. He by no means misplaced earlier than so he bought away with it. He used to say within the fitness center: ‘It does not matter, I am nonetheless successful,'” Billam-Smith stated.

“He wants to vary his model,” the Bournemouth man continued. “I anticipate him to. It should make the second struggle extra intriguing.”

Billam-Smith is adamant that he can be extra harmful too. For a begin, he will not suffer from a abdomen bug, as he was of their first struggle. “I can see issues I can do higher in there as nicely. Then on the time I used to be conscious of not desirous to waste any vitality ranges as a result of I knew I wasn’t actually 100 per cent,” he stated.

“That’ll be a struggle that may occur subsequent 12 months.”