Chris Billam-Smith embracing ‘AFC Bournemouth of boxing’ tag

After 14 games in the 2023/24 Premier League campaign, AFC Bournemouth were looking for just their fifth win of the season. On that November 11 evening against Newcastle United, striker Dominic Solanke scored a goal for AFC Bournemouth in the 60th minute and celebrated by hitting the corner flag with a beautiful 1-2 combination.

Solanke paid tribute to his friend Chris Billam-Smith, then a cruiserweight contender.

Billam-Smith has no problem comparing himself to boxing's equivalent of AFC Bournemouth – and not just because he's a fan of the English Premier League (EPL) club. He sees similarities between his rise to the highest level of boxing and that of his hometown football club, AFC Bournemouth, which has one of the smallest stadiums and budgets in football's elite English. Fighting against all odds is something Billam-Smith feels he has had to do too, to get to the position he is in now having progressed from British and European title fights to becoming the WBO world champion cruiserweight in May.

On Sunday, the 33-year-old makes a first defense of his belt against Mateusz Masternak (47-5, 31 KOs), 36, of Wroclaw, Poland, in front of his hometown crowd at the Bournemouth International Center , in the south of England. side.

Billam-Smith (18-1, 12 KO) went from being a sparring partner to former champion Lawrence Okolie and fighting lower on the boxing cards to become the current No. 4 at 200 pounds in the ESPN division rankings and make headlines. He is Bournemouth's first world champion boxer since Freddie Mills, who won the world light heavyweight title from Gus Lesnevich in 1948, and lost the belt two years later to Joey Maxim.

“Just like AFC Bournemouth, I had no expectations of myself, but I came through the ranks, overcame some challenges and got my rewards,” Billam-Smith told ESPN. “Now I'm in the top flight like Bournemouth. I'm a big fan of the club, I had a season ticket for two years when I was 12-14 and I followed the club when they were in lower leagues up to the Premier League.

Billam-Smith sees many similarities between club football and his boxing career.

“Bournemouth is a small place, not known for its boxing and it wasn't really known for its football either before Bournemouth first got promoted to the Premier League,” Billam-smith said. “We don't have much history in either sport here. I also had to come from nowhere in boxing to win the world title, not many people thought I could do it last year.”

The Masternak fight is taking place at an indoor venue, rather than at AFC Bournemouth's away stadium, the Vitality Stadium, which hosted a crowd of 15,000 when Billam-Smith dropped Okolie three times as he was headed for an upset victory by majority decision. Can take the belt.

Unusually, the Masternak fight will take place on a Sunday, but this is to ensure there is no conflict with AFC Bournemouth's Premier League schedule and fans will be able to watch both events this weekend -end.

“Bournemouth football fans make up a big part of my fan base and Bournemouth play Manchester United at Old Trafford. [in Manchester] the Saturday [Dec. 9]So I couldn't organize the Masternak fight on the same day as Bournemouth versus Man United because I would have a lot of unhappy fans who wouldn't be able to go to the fight. They bring an incredible atmosphere to my fights and I couldn't have them let it go, so we moved the fight to a Sunday, which is unusual, I know.

Billam-Smith said he had gotten to know a few Bournemouth players over the years and had some members of the current squad watching his struggles.

“I was speaking to Dominic Solanke the other day before a match and I told him I celebrated his goal when I was on the pitch. [TV programme] Soccer AM,” Billam-Smith said. “Then when he scored against Newcastle United [on Nov. 11] he ran and hit the corner flag. It's crazy when Premier League footballers celebrate their goals after you! David Brookes, Marcus Tavernier, Junior Stanislas and Ryan Fredericks were at my last fight and Brookesy said he hopes they can take part in the next one after they return from Manchester.”

Cruiserweight is often overlooked as a division, but that could change next year. The emergence of the exciting Australian Jai Opetaia (23-0, 18 KOs), IBF title holder, who will defend his belt against the Englishman Ellis Zorro on December 23, and the high probability that Billam-Smith will face either Okolie (19-1, 14 KOs) or Richard Riakporhe (16-0, 12 KOs) in rematches means exciting fights are on the horizon.

Boxers generally adopt menacing nicknames, such as “The Monster” (Nayou Inoue), “The Executioner” (Bernard Hopkins), “The Black Destroyer” (Nigel Benn), “Bronze Bomber” (Deontay Wilder), “Hands of Pierre” (Roberto Duran), “Bodysnatcher” (Mike McCallum) or even “The Hitman” (Thomas Hearns, Ricky Hatton). But Billam-Smith is known as “The Gentleman” because of his courteous and respectful demeanor outside the ring, which never sees him criticize his opponents.

“He has a huge amount of experience, he’s one of the most experienced fighters in the world at cruiserweight, and maybe my toughest fight yet,” Billam-Smith said of Masternak. “He has a fantastic chin, he has only been stopped once in over 50 professional fights and that was by Grigory Drozd in 2013, a long time ago and he has been around monsters so I expect a difficult evening, but I believe I can do the best job on him that anyone has done.”

Rematches against Okolie and Riakporhe, who won a split decision over Billam-Smith in July 2019, will still contain plenty of spice, as long as Billam-Smith gets past Masternak who went the distance with Yuniel Dorticos, the reigning WBC champion, in 2018 and former WBC champion, now retired, Tony Bellew in 2015.

“There are people in my contract [with promoter BOXXER] who I could fight against, there are other world champions too. Lawrence Okolie and Richard Riakporhe are in my contract as potential opponents, so technically I've already signed to fight them. People want to see these rivalries, like the ones we had with Carl Froch and George Groves. [at super middleweight] ten years ago.

“Jai Opetaia seems to have progressed quickly to some people, but he was there for a while. He beat Mairis Breidis and looked good, but in reality that's the only name on his record and it's not No disrespect, but it will be a big step up in class for his next opponent Ellis Zorro.”

And like a lower division team fighting to climb the ladder, Billam-Smith also has to sell their own tickets. His wife Mia helped sell tickets for Sunday's fight while her husband trains in London with trainer Shane McGuigan during the week. The couple have a 16-month-old son and Mia also works part-time as a successful interior designer. Billam-Smith feels it's easier for him than Mia when he's at training camp.

“She sells some of the tickets, I don't know how she does it, because she's also a full-time mom and also has a part-time job, on top of all the household chores and running my boxing,” said Billam Smith. ESPN. “She’s a bit like Wonder Woman, she sold 500 tickets for this fight.”