Chris Billam-Smith is going away a happy man.
Bournemouth’s new WBO cruiserweight champion is heading to a wedding in Marbella and then going to a stag do in Barcelona but he will be travelling having fulfilled his lifelong dream of winning a world title at Dean Court, the Vitality Stadium, home of his beloved Bournemouth AFC.
He did it in an upset, outscoring former gym rival and associate Lawrence Okolie over 12 rough and tumble rounds that saw Okolie lose five points, three for knockdowns and two for infractions.
But while it was all in Billam-Smith’s dreams, he revealed that he had suffered with sickness and diarrhoea through fight week and that he couldn’t do everything trainer Shane McGuigan had wanted him to do.
McGuigan had even considered pulling Billam-Smith out of the bout, something the fighter was adamant he wouldn’t do.
“I had a fantastic camp, everything went well, I knew it was too good to be true,” Billam-Smith joked.
“Energy was low, I’d like to have gone through the gears a bit more but I was managing the effort,” explained an emotionally-exhausted champion afterwards. “I knew I was hurting him and I was picking my spots and the excessive holding was the most difficult thing to deal with. He’s strong with it. He leans on you. Towards the end of the fight, I started adjusting myself a little bit and if there’s a rematch, I’ll be able to do things a lot better early on.”
Billam-Smith felt his crisp fourth round knockdown of the former Olympian assisted in making Okolie more negative but he was not keeping track of the score in his mind.
“I couldn’t figure out how many points he’d had off and how many knockdowns there were,” admitted the Bournemouth star. “I was just focusing on the job at hand. I had no idea. Tonight was about focusing on the job, soaking up the atmosphere and not get too overwhelmed. It’s definitely been difficult at times not to get too overwhelmed.”
Six weeks ago, Billam-Smith’s mother, Carol, was diagnosed with breast cancer, two years after suffering from a stroke and 25 years after an initial breast cancer diagnosis. She is facing a second mastectomy next month, and Billam-Smith emotionally dedicated his win to her.
The moment was too intense for him to try to explain. The words, and the new, were all he had ever wanted to hear in that venue in front of his hometown fans.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said the new champion. “Words can’t describe that feeling. I’m sure there are people who have won a world title that can’t describe that feeling. So much hardship goes into it. I’ve been away from my son for weeks on end. That’s just one part of it. I’ve been ill this week, that’s another part, I’ve had a lot of adversity to endeavour through and all of that adds up to emotion.”
Billam-Smith would not be drawn on what happens next, politely declining questions on the future to savour the present.
Promoter Ben Shalom agreed, adding: “I want Chris to enjoy this moment before he has to think about another fight.”
With Okolie losing points in so many rounds, was Billam-Smith tempted to shut up shop and stay on his feet in the last two rounds? The thought never crossed his mind and he kept his fans nervously on the end of their seats until the final bell and his majority decision win was announced.
“I didn’t know how the scorecards were going,” said Billam-Smith. “I knew I had to do something. I said to Shane after 10 rounds, ‘Two rounds left?’ And he said, ‘Yes’ and I was like, ‘Let’s do this.’
“You can’t afford to relax. You see people trying to win world titles and they leave a little bit in there, and I didn’t want to leave anything to chance so I tried to do as well as I could. With Lawrence, if you let him just tee off on you, he’s dangerous, so you couldn’t give him the chance.”
