Gilberto Ramirez beat Chris Billam-Smith tonight via a wide points decision, to take the unified cruiserweight world title. Billed as part of Riyadh Season, this was the headline fight on “Latino Night”, where the Latinx fighter Ramirez was able to use his superior skills to overhaul his larger opponent. The judges scored the fight 116-112, 116-112 and 116-113 in favour of the Mexican. There could be no complaints from Billam-Smith’s corner, who might have feared their fighter would be pulled out earlier in the fight due to a vicious cut.
Billam-Smith had some success in the early rounds, generally being the more aggressive fighter and landing thudding shots on Ramirez. But Ramirez managed to counter effectively, and grew in confidence as the fight entered the second quarter. Spending much of his career at Super-Middleweight, Ramirez was able to use his superior footwork and speed to walk down Billam-Smith, tagging him with left hooks from his southpaw stance, which unsettled Billam-Smith in almost every round.
A headbutt in round four opened up a cut over Billam-Smith’s right eye, which was also swollen from the onslaught from Ramirez’s left. The southpaw continued to apply pressure in the middle of the fight, finding his target increasingly slow and sluggish in response to the pace.
Through the later rounds, Billam-Smith’s corner urged him to be more aggressive, in need of a knockout given he was behind on the scorecards, and the cut was being inspected carefully by officials between rounds. A flurry of activity in the final two rounds was too little too late, Ramirez taking the second wind in his stride, managing to counter anything Billam-Smith was able to land. The final bell rang and Ramirez celebrated with his corner, the new unified cruiserweight champion of the world.
That Billam-Smith remained upright, taking shots to the body and head which would fell most fighters, will earn him respect in the boxing community. This was not a devastating loss, but it was one sided, and you suspect there will be no calls for a rematch. Asked after the fight, Billam-Smith was coy on his future, simply stating he would “have a nice Christmas” in response to questions about his next opponent.
In his post-fight interview, Ramirez affirmed a desire to take on the number one ranked fighter in the division, Jai Opetaia, stating he wanted to “unify all the championships”. However, Opetaia was stripped of his IBF title in 2023, and with Noel Mikaelian holding the WBC belt, the latter might be the more prudent fight.
The fight was held in “The Venue”, a new purpose built arena in Saudi Arabia. Like many fights in Saudi, the atmosphere appeared incongruent with the scale of the fight, with minimal crowd noise and large numbers of empty seats visible.