Chris Billam-Smith produced a spirited display but absorbed too much damage and that proved the precursor to an unsuccessful attempt at unifying the cruiserweight division, as newly-crowned WBA world titleholder Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez boxed clever en route to a 12-round unanimous decision win in their Riyadh main event on Latino Night, wrestling WBO championship gold his way.
Zurdo zaps courageous CBS in world title unification
116-112, 116-113, 116-112: Gilberto Ramirez bt. Chris Billam-Smith via UD12, unifies WBA and WBO cruiserweight world titles in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
WHEN you break it down the way Shane McGuigan did earlier in fight week, for an overachiever no-one expected to reach this juncture, it makes a difficult assignment seem like more of an impossible job – especially knowing the gruelling, attritional work done behind-the-scenes before earning this career-best opportunity.
Billam-Smith’s encouraging start was predicated on utilising the jab and maintaining distance between them as Ramirez looked to establish rhythm in a matchup that could’ve easily been devoid of some. Instead this ebbed and flowed, an absorbing contest but one the Bournemouth man unwittingly played into Zurdo’s hands.
Early success emboldened him to box on the inside, allowing Ramirez to consistently catch him clean with single shots and later combination punching as the cumulative damage began taking its toll. Billam-Smith didn’t shy away from the fire, though was increasingly getting pinged as uppercuts and power shots flashed his way.
Ramirez was naturally faster of the pair and it showed, both in the way he was able to unload shots without reply when backing up Billam-Smith towards the ropes and when exiting their exchanges with subtle tendencies to keep himself defensively sound for sustained periods. Straight lefts and rights would garner such big reactions.
That was all courtesy of his lateral movement, able to shrug the 34-year-old off when situations arose while backpedalling and still generating power to catch him with single shots he wouldn’t predict were forthcoming as he walked onto them.
Billam-Smith fired back, largely downstairs and with punch flurries to open up a high guard, though the WBA champion was having the better of these exchanges and gradually building a lead the Brit couldn’t recover from – not with the damage continuing to subtly take its toll in an exhausting bout between proud titleholders.
Blood leaking from his left eye and weary as time wore on, Billam-Smith pitched a better sixth and had a share of the last four rounds across all three scorecards. The issue? He’d been hurt and wobbled, scoring shots not in short supply as he couldn’t mask the pain inflicted against a hard-hitter many thought he could stop late.
Differing eyes
R9: Deon Dwarte scored it 10-9 CBS
R10: All three judges scored it a 10-9 CBS round
R11: Steve Weisfeld, Mark Lyson scored it 10-9 in his favour
R12: Lyson deemed this a 10-10 round
Cuffing shots connecting clean didn’t stop him unloading work too, body-then-head, as the fire continued intensifying in the pocket between them under referee Harvey Dock’s watchful eye. Both threw caution to the wind during an exhausting final round, an apt conclusion to a competitive tussle with a clear winner.
Results from the rest of this card
Arnold Barboza Jr passed the toughest test of his career to date, beating former unified world light-welterweight champion Jose Carlos Ramirez via UD10 (97-93, 96-94 x 2) to win their unofficial WBO world light-welterweight title eliminator.
William Zepeda recovered from a career-first knockdown to edge beyond Tevin Farmer via SD10 (95-94, 94-95, 95-94), winning the WBC interim world lightweight title and keeping a Shakur Stevenson showdown still part of the 28-year-old’s plans.
Oscar Collazo (c) dropped Thammanoon Niyomtrong three times en route to a R7 TKO win, making the fourth defence of his WBO world minimum title.
Oscar Duarte‘s rebuild after a knockout defeat by Ryan Garcia last December continues after the Mexican-born American went the ten-round distance against Botirzhon Akhmedov and earned a UD10 victory (97-92, 97-93, 96-94) at light-welter.
Saudi welterweight Ziyad Almaayouf has boxed exclusively on undercards of big shows since his Aug. 2022 debut and here went six rounds vs. Juan Carlos Ramirez Garcia in a contest ending with a majority decision draw (57-57, 58-56, 57-57).
More analysis to follow shortly…
Picture source: Getty Images
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