A decade-old score to settle
There was a fist bump but no handshake. At their live face-off ahead of Zuffa Boxing 12, Cheavon Clarke declined Chris Billam-Smith’s offer of a hand, and the two cruiserweights stared each other out for a long stretch.
The tension goes back to 2016. Clarke beat Billam-Smith in the elite championships final that year, and both then went to an assessment for the GB squad. Clarke made the international team and later the Olympic Games. Billam-Smith has said he has a score to settle from that painful loss.
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Different reads on the same night
Clarke does not see it as anything personal. “I never stole his place. We fought, I won on the day and we both had the opportunity,” he said, and he expected the pair to meet as professionals eventually. “It’s time for us to get it on now.”
Billam-Smith, who won the WBO world title when he upset Lawrence Okolie in 2023, even thinks the amateur loss helped him. He says he might never have ended up training with Shane McGuigan without it, and calls McGuigan the only coach who could get the best out of him.
On the fight itself, Billam-Smith is confident. “If I had Chev hurt I believe I can get rid of him,” he said. Clarke’s last outing is his reply: he rose from the canvas twice to stop Jack Massey. “I’m Cheavon Clarke, you can’t ever count me out,” he warned.
They headline Saturday night at the Copper Box Arena in London, live on Sky Sports.
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