Much of the talk this past weekend was, rightly so, centered around Devin Haney’s power-boxing clinic against Regis Prograis to annex the WBC 140-pound title from his fellow American at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

However, it wasn’t the only game in town this weekend. So, I decided to leave it to my colleagues to wax lyrical about the impressive offering and instead thought I’d focus my attention on Chris Billam-Smith’s first defense of the WBO cruiserweight title against contender Masteusz Masternak over 5,000 miles away in his hometown of Bournemouth, England.

It was anything but smooth sailing for the 33-year-old Brit, who had to eat several hard right hands throughout their encounter, but he kept coming and his body work paid dividends when he broke the Polish veteran’s rib late in the seventh round and forced his corner to pull the plug on their fighter at the start of the eighth round.

It was a startling turn of events. Billam-Smith looked in jeopardy of losing his title to Masternak, who had found his groove and repeatedly hammered home his punches. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, and Billam-Smith thrilled his fans by getting the victory. The win reminded me somewhat of how Leigh Wood overcame Josh Warrington a few months ago.

Afterwards it was announced that Masternak was ahead 68-65 on two of the scorecards and the third had the fight level.

Interestingly, according to CompuBox, Masternak outlanded Billam-Smith in each of the first six rounds. He landed 88 of 275 compared to CBS’s 67 of 209. The turning point doubtlessly came in the seventh when Billam-Smith was particularly economical landing 14 of 29, a conversation rate of 48.3 percent.

It wasn’t pretty but the end result was what the fans turned out in numbers to see.

All in all, it was a very good weekend for the locals. Billam-Smith requested that this fight be moved to a Sunday rather than the usual Saturday spot because his beloved AFC Bournemouth were playing away from home in the Premier League against giants Manchester United and Billam-Smith wanted to allow fans to go to watch that and return to watch him in what was deemed a dangerous voluntary defense. It was certainly no cherry pick! (For those who don’t know Bournemouth’s nickname is The Cherry’s)

It turned out extremely well as Bournemouth thumped Manchester United 3-0 and then then following evening Billam-Smith stopped Masternak. There should be plenty of festive cheer in that part of the world at the moment.

Up the cherries 🍒🍒

What a result. Now it’s my turn!#afcb https://t.co/5nWl78SIA2

— Chris Billam-Smith (@ChrisBillam) December 9, 2023

Now, while Billam-Smith isn’t as easy on the eye as Haney, few are to be honest, he appears to be a big part of his division going forward.

The WBO look likely to name the only man to have beaten Billam-Smith, namely Richard Riakporhe, as his mandatory challenger. When the two met in July 2019, Riakporhe edged matters by 10-round split decision. A seventh-round knockdown cost Billam-Smith on that night. The two are cordial with each other but a second run through would likely produce much needed fireworks in the cruiserweight division which has grown a little stale in 2023.

Long gone are the days of the World Boxing Super Series, which crowned an undisputed Ring champion in the sublimely talented Oleksandr Usyk in Season 1. The following season, Mairis Briedis won and collected several accolades including the vacant Ring championship.

The battle-hardened Latvian lost it when he headed to Australia against then largely unknown Jai Opetaia, in a physically grueling, high impact fight. Opetaia suffered a badly broken jaw and spent nearly a year off. When he returned, he was better than ever smashing up Jordan Thompson in four one-sided rounds.

Jai Opetaia and Mairis Briedis slug it out during their Ring Magazine and IBF cruiserweight title fight in Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Peter Wallis/Getty Images)

Opetaia received an offer to put his IBF and Ring title against Ellis Zorro, most likely for career best money, on the undercard of Anthony Joshua-Otto Wallin/Deontay Wilder-Joseph Parker in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It looked a passable fight to continue his recent activity before meeting old rival Briedis in 2024. However, the IBF have different ideas and have in the past couple of days stripped Opetaia, which is a shame.

Nonetheless, Opetaia vs. Billam-Smith would be a mouthwatering proposition and it’s a fight Billam-Smith told me when we spoke in the build up to facing Masternak that he would be very interested in, believing that would pit the two best cruiserweights throwing down to decide who is the premier 200-pound fighter in the world.

Before that can happen, Billam-Smith also owes the man he beat for the title, Lawrence Okolie a contractually obliged rematch. The first fight wasn’t pretty, Okolie was dropped three times and had two points taken for excessive holding and ran the gauntlet of being disqualified.

Chris Billam-Smith (right) lands a left on Lawrence Okolie – Photo by Lawrence Lustig/Boxxer

It would appear that the popular Brit will have his hands full with either Riakporhe or Okolie next followed by the other. If he can emerge victorious from that, a meeting with Opetaia would be even bigger. However, it may be a tough sell as Billam-Smith plies his trade with Boxxer on Sky Sports and Opetaia is aligned with Matchroom on DAZN. We can hope and dream can’t we!?!

It’s good to have options and that’s exactly what Billam-Smith has. He has come a long way from a 16-year-old kid, who followed a mate to the boxing gym and got into the sport because he wanted to hear his other friends cheer his name.

Since then, he’s found his niche in the sport, initially as an amateur though he was unable to reach the top. Barry and Shane McGuigan saw a diamond in the rough and have polished him up to collect British, Commonwealth and European titles before adding a world title in front of a fervent home support earlier this year. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Don’t tell Billam-Smith, though; he wants to add even more hardware to his collection and after the year he’s had, who would bet against him.

Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at [email protected] and you can follow him on
Twitter@AnsonWainwright

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